Do laws regarding violence against or sexual exploitation of young people recognise gendered and other power dynamics? Cross‐national comparison of legal texts can illustrate the benefits of framing issues of violence/gender/youth in certain ways and offer critical reflection on particular legal frameworks or cultural understandings. This policy review is based on an analysis of select laws regarding gender‐related violence (GRV) as relates to young people in Italy, Ireland, Spain and the UK. Here, GRV is defined as sexist, sexualising or norm‐driven bullying, harassment, discrimination or violence whoever is targeted. It therefore includes gender, sexuality and sex‐gender normativities, as well as violence against women and girls. A tension emerges between granting young people agency and recognising the multiple, intersecting power relations that might limit and shape that agency. This article draws out the implications for the UK in particular, highlighting the absence of preventative measures and the need for a broader approach to combat GRV.

Qüestionant la perspectiva de gènere en la recerca

Este texto es una presentación del monográfico Experiencias de investigación feminista: propuestas y reflexiones metodológicas. En él damos cuenta de las consideraciones y motivaciones principales que nos han llevado a proponerlo, así como de la trayectoria y el proceso de trabajo con metodologías feministas del que formamos parte, el seminario SIMReF. De esta manera, exponemos algunas dificultades que se mantienen para producir conocimiento no androcéntrico en la academia, sostenemos el interés de trabajar sobre métodos con los que transversalizar el análisis de sexo y género en distintas áreas disciplinarias, planteamos la oportunidad de elaborar guías o referentes metodológicos para aplicar las epistemologías feministas en nuestras investigaciones y, especialmente, abogamos por la necesidad de dar cuenta de las decisiones prácticas tomadas en los procesos de investigación que realizamos, a fin de hacer visible así la “cocina” de los mismos. Para acabar, describimos con brevedad el contenido presente en el monográfico.

In the past three decades, feminists and critical theorists have discussed and argued the importance of deconstructing and problematising social science research methodology to question normalized hierarchies concerning the production of knowledge and the status of truth claims. Nevertheless, often, these ideas have remained theoretical propositions not embodied in research practices. In fact there is very little published discussion about the difficulties and limits of their practical application. In this paper, we introduce some interconnected reflections starting from two different but related experiences of embodying feminist activist research. Our aim is to emphasise the importance of attending to process, making mistakes and learning during fieldwork, as well as experimenting with personalized forms of analysis, such as the construction of narratives and the story-telling process.

It should not be surprising that in Italy, one of the latest European countries to recognize same-sex couples, LGBTIQ+ concerns are not included in students’ academic curricula. Therefore, following the historical path of gender studies (GS) and women’s studies (WS), this article explores the current feminist and gender discourse in order to catch a glimpse of what will be needed to fill this gap. To clarify which women’s and gender studies standpoints are taught to new generations in Italy, lexicometric and correspondence analysis were performed on the descriptions of universities courses teaching WS and GS perspectives. Although the international spread of these two perspectives in academia is still wide, the results indicate a consistent lack of these courses in Italian institutions of higher education and, moreover, separate viewpoints associated with the two perspectives.