Violence against Women and Economic Globalization: Case Study of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico

Abstract: This thesis will look at the international political economy of violence against women. The drastic increase of the case women murder (femicide) in Mexico since 1993 has attracted worldwide attention. It will focus on the influence of international economic institutions (e.g. IMF, World Bank, TNCs) toward the increasing cases of violence against women in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. This thesis will use case-study research strategy. Ciudad Juarez will be chosen as the case study because it is one of the largest border city in the Mexico and it can represent border cities in Mexico. The analysis will rely on the Galtung’s definition of violence against women and gender perspective of economic globalization. Violence against women will be consisted of wage exploitation, sexual harassment, pregnancy testing, poor safety standard, and domestic violence. The method for answering the research question is text analysis using secondary data sources. This thesis concludes that international economic institutions have significant roles in the gender-based violence in Ciudad Juárez.