Explorations on the nature of resistance: Challenging gender-based violence in the academy

Abstract

As awareness of and frustration with sexism in academia grows, so too do strategies of resistance. This chapter explores the concept of ‘resistance’ in relation to gender-based violence (GBV) in universities. In this context, ‘resistance’ includes work, much of it inspired by a feminist analysis, to prevent GBV, to hold institutions to account and to change university cultures so that they no longer invisibilise or condone GBV. Resistance to such efforts also comes from those who would support the status quo and those critical of the framing of anti-GBV campaigns. This chapter will explore how the ‘backlash’ against feminism and post-feminist equalisation discourses comprises types of resistance to radical attempts to eradicate this form of sexism in the academy.