By Magdalena Sanchez 
The patriarchal state: negligence, repression and abandonment
When Laura, a 35-year-old woman, finally mustered the courage to report her partner’s violence, she was met with an unexpected response: indifference. At the police station, she was treated coldly, told it was “a domestic matter,” and advised to go home and “sort things out.” This experience, far from being an isolated case, reflects a painful and systemic truth for many women: the State, the entity that should protect them, becomes yet another pillar of patriarchal violence. The belief in a neutral State that guarantees everyone’s rights is a myth that crumbles in the face of the negligence, repression, and abandonment suffered by women. This essay examines how the State, through its structures and actions, perpetuates gender-based violence, while also exploring the popular and community-based resistance movements that emerge to challenge it.
Negligence: the invisibility of gender violence
The first and most insidious form of state abuse is negligence. The state fails in its duty to protect women by not providing the necessary resources to effectively combat violence. This failure manifests itself in many ways: in the critical shortage of safe shelters for victims, in the lack of specialized and gender-sensitive staff in hospitals and police stations, and in the absence of public policies that address violence from a comprehensive perspective. Feminism has demonstrated that violence against women is not a private matter, but a manifestation of social inequality and a serious human rights issue. However, the state often minimizes domestic and gender-based violence, treating it as a minor issue. This not only leaves victims unprotected but also sends a message of impunity to perpetrators. As sociologist Lucía Melgar points out in her analysis of gender-based violence in Mexico, public policy cannot be a mere add-on, but must “be cross-cutting and permeate all spheres of the state so that the gender perspective becomes a state policy.” Without this integration, women like Laura face a bureaucratic labyrinth, institutional revictimization, and a system that does not see them, does not hear them, and does not believe them.
Repression: Criminalization and Control
In addition to neglect, the patriarchal state manifests itself through active and direct repression. Women in vulnerable situations, such as those living in poverty or forced to migrate, are often targeted by a system that criminalizes them rather than supports them. As Angela Davis explains in her work, the state uses prisons and the judicial system not to guarantee justice, but to maintain social and economic control over impoverished populations. This logic is particularly applied to women who are punished for the very conditions of inequality that the state perpetuates. A poor woman can be criminalized for defending herself against an aggressor, while a migrant woman can be detained and deported despite having fled violence in her country of origin.
Similarly, when women raise their voices and organize to protest against violence, the state responds with police repression, criminalization of their leaders, and public vilification. The force used to disperse feminist marches in Latin America is not simply an act of maintaining public order; it is a desperate attempt to silence a movement that demands accountability from a power structure that has proven ineffective or openly hostile. States employ tactics such as tear gas, arbitrary arrests, and smear campaigns to delegitimize and demobilize the protests—a clear example of state violence aimed at maintaining the status quo.
Abandonment: femicides and disappearances as state crimes
The most brutal and visible form of state complicity is the inaction in the face of femicides and disappearances. When a woman is murdered simply for being a woman and her case goes unpunished—which happens in an overwhelming percentage of cases in many Latin American countries—the state becomes complicit in the crime. Impunity sends the message that a woman’s life has less value and that her death will have no consequences for the perpetrator, creating an endless cycle of violence. This indifference creates what philosopher Judith Butler describes as a “precarious life,” in which certain bodies, in this case women’s bodies, become disposable and do not deserve the same degree of mourning or protection as others.
The mothers of the disappeared, searching for their daughters with their own hands, and the collectives documenting the murders the government ignores, are living proof of this abandonment. With their pain, their courage, and their tireless search, they expose the cruelest face of a state that has utterly failed them. The lack of effective search protocols, the indifference of prosecutors, and the revictimization of families are just some of the tools the system uses to perpetuate disappearances and impunity, turning femicide and enforced disappearance into state crimes.
The resistance: popular organization and hope
However, amidst this bleak landscape, women’s response has been resistance. Faced with state inaction, feminist, grassroots, and community movements have flourished, creating support networks, makeshift shelters, and systems of emotional and legal assistance. These organizations act as a vital counterweight, a reminder that strength resides not only in governments but also in people’s capacity to self-organize. The “Ni Una Menos” movement in Argentina and the “Searching Mothers” in Mexico are examples of this resilience.
These struggles, as Angela Davis suggests in her writings on the importance of collective action, are essential for dismantling structures of oppression. Protest is not the problem, but rather the tool of the oppressed to make visible and fight against an unjust system. It is the voice of those who have been silenced, the light that illuminates the darkness of neglect and abandonment. Through community organizing, women not only demand justice, but also build a new future where every woman’s life is valued and protected.
Conclusion
The patriarchal state is not an abstract metaphor. It is a tangible structure that, through negligence, repression, and abandonment, perpetuates violence against women. Laura’s story, the criminalization of poverty, and the impunity surrounding femicides are manifestations of a system that needs to be dismantled and rebuilt. The feminist struggle does not seek the abolition of the state, but its radical transformation so that it ceases to be an aggressor and becomes a true guarantor of the rights and security of all people. The road is long and difficult, but the power of organized resistance reminds us that, despite the darkness, hope resides in the hands of those who refuse to surrender.
References:
- Butler, J. (2004). Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence. Verso. p. 67.
- Davis, A. (2003).Are Prisons Obsolete? Seven Stories Press. p. 23.
- Melgar, L. (2012). Cultura, política y violencia contra las mujeres en México. El Colegio de México. p. 45.