Universities facing Gender Violence. The Limited Scope of Formal Mechanisms

Abstract

In recent years, accusations of sexual harassment have proliferated in institutions of higher education, and the manner in which they have responded has varied. Some have tended toward passivity or silence, under the principle that situations of gender violence respond to isolated events that must be addressed individually; in other cases, it was decided to provide the institutions with formal mechanisms that would allow them to attend to the cases. However, movements like #MeTooAcadémicos brought to light the need to find alternate ways to report cases of sexual violence, because formal channels apparently fail to respond to the needs of the victims. This paper analyzes the institutional mechanisms that public and private universities in Mexico are using to prevent and address cases of gender-based violence, and thereby highlight the challenges they face to put an end to this phenomenon.