Violence against women: November 25th, and searching for (scholarly) literature

Inclusive searches & sources @FMG Library (32)

November 25th is the International day for the elimination of violence against women and marks the beginning of the UNITE campaign, 16 days of activism which will end on December 10th, International Human Rights Day.

«Women’s rights activists have observed 25 November as a day against gender-based violence since 1981. This date was selected to honour the Mirabal sisters, three political activists from the Dominican Republic who were brutally murdered in 1960 by order of the country’s ruler, Rafael Trujillo (1930-1961)» [source; more about the Mirabal sisters can be found on JSTOR Daily]. Later on, in 2000, the United Nations officially designated November 25 as the International day for the elimination of violence against women, following earlier UN’s interventions on the issue, such as the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, and preceding the creation (in 2008) of the above mentioned UNITE to End Violence against Women Campaign (whose infographic Violence against women is the source of the following screenshots).

Apart from briefly addressing the topic in an older post (Women murdered by (ex)partners: some figures), in the past years I also developed several search strings for finding relevant (scholarly) literature, following requests for assistance from UvA Endowed Professor of Gender based violence Renée Römkens (now Emeritus: watch her valedictory speech and/or check some of her publications available at the UvA Library) and by Suzanne Bouma, PhD-student in Sociology (her thesis defence is scheduled on next December 19th).

Both Römkens and Bouma have also worked with Atria – Institute on gender equality and women’s history, and it this institute which in 2020 published their (and Danitza Berry‘s) report – commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport – Financiële (on)afhankelijkheid van vrouwen en partnergeweld: wat is het verband? Literatuurstudie (Women’s financial (in)dependence and partner violence: what is the connection? A literature study). It is for this report that I developed the following search strings for the bibliographic databases PscyINFO and SocINDEX (see pp. 49-52 of the report for the full search strategy), which I hope can be inspirational to those studying the same topic and/or using the same databases.

• topic: intimate partner violence (scholarly articles)

PsycINFO (‘Advanced search’)
(abused partner* OR abusive male partner* OR battered female* OR battered wom#n OR domestic violence OR (ex-partner ADJ3 violen*) OR (hono?r ADJ3 violen*) OR interparental violen* OR marital rape OR partner abuse OR (partner ADJ3 violen*) OR (spous* ADJ3 violen*)).ti,ab,id. OR battered females/ OR domestic violence/ OR intimate partner violence/

SocINDEX (‘Advanced search’ in Abstract, Keywords, Subject, Title)
(“abused partner*” OR “abusive male partner*” OR “battered female*” OR “battered wom?n” OR “domestic violence” OR ex-partner N3 violen* OR hono#r N3 violen* OR “interparental violen*” OR IPV OR “marital rape” OR “partner abuse” OR partner N3 violen* OR spous* N3 violen*)

Even if the report wasn’t meant as a systematic review of the literature, the previous search strings partly derive from my experience with systematic reviews (check my colleague Janneke Staaks’ excellent Systematic Review Search Support if you’re interested in the methodology). They might, therefore, present slightly too elaborated combinations of search terms and syntax for staff and students working on other (academic) assignments. The following search strings, for the press database Nexis Uni and for Google Scholar, are meant as more accessible and yet just as (again, hopefully) inspirational examples of how to search for literature:

• topic: gender based violence in The Netherlands (newspapers)

Nexis Uni (‘Advanced search’ in Headline and Lead Sections: English language newspapers)
((“domestic abuse” OR “domestic violence” OR “gender based abuse” OR “gender based violence” “intimate partner abuse” OR “intimate partner violence” OR “violence against women”)) AND ((netherlands OR dutch OR holland))

Nexis Uni (‘Advanced search’ in Headline and Lead Sections: Dutch language newspapers)
(“huiselijk geweld” OR partnergeweld OR “gendergerelateerd geweld” OR “geweld tegen vrouwen”) AND (nederland! OR holland!)

Check the Nexis Uni manual available online via the UvA CataloguePlus for more search options at the database.

• topic: gender based violence (books)

Google Scholar
(“gender based violence” or “violence against women” or “intimate partner violence”) site:books.google.com

Check our previous blog in the series, Google Scholar: bias, settings, advanced search, alerts, for more insights into the workings of Scholar.