Problematising the ‘Man Problem’ in the Domestic Abuse Act: Discursive Co-Option

26 Mar 2025

We were delighted to welcome Dr Sharron FitzGerald (University of Paris 8) to UCC on 26 March, for a seminar hosted by the ISS21 Genders, Sexualities and Families Research Cluster and UCC Futures - Collective Social Futures.

In her presentation Dr FitzGerald interrogated the forms of contestation that are currently taking place around the concept of ‘gender-neutrality’ in law and policy that deal with domestic violence and abuse (DVA), taking the parliamentary debates around the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 in England and Wales as a case study. Like other European jurisdictions – Denmark, the Netherland and the Republic of Ireland – England and Wales have adopted a gender-neutral statutory definition of DVA. Dr FitzGerald argues that Members of Parliament (MPs) reframe DVAs ‘man problem’ not as the problem of men as perpetrators of VAW, but rather, they represent the law and policy ‘problem’ as men’s invisibility as victims of DVA. She argues that MPs instrumentalise gender equality discourses to advance masculinist politics and patriarchal logics, while simultaneously insisting that gender is an irrelevant category of meaning in this area. It is proposed that this occurs in ways that have detrimental effects for the less powerful, and which elide the reality of women’s experiences of men’s violences.

Dr FitzGerald's thought-provoking presentation was followed by an animated audience discussion and an agreement that we will do more on these issues, inspired by Sharron's work.

The event was opened by Professor Maggie O'Neill (Director of Collective Social Futures and ISS21) and chaired by Dr Gema Kloppe-Santamaría, co-convenor of the Genders, Sexualities and Families Cluster. 

_{Dr Gema Kloppe-Santamaría (ISS21) welcomes Dr Sharron FitzGerald to the event.}

About the Speaker

Dr Sharron FitzGerald is a senior research academic at CRESSPA-GTM, Paris 8. She is the founder and Executive Director of the International Law, Gender and Sexuality Research Network She is the founder and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the feminist social scientific journal Gender and Justice

Dr FitzGerald earned an honours Bachelor’s degree in Geography and French and a Master’s degree in geography from University College, Cork. She holds a Doctor in Philosophy (summa cum laude) from Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada. She has taught in a range of universities in Canada, the UK, Germany and France. Her main areas of teaching and research expertise are gender, sexuality, migration, human trafficking, violence against women, feminist/gender theory and socio-legal approaches. She has published her research findings on these topics in a wider range of top-tier international peer-reviewed academic journals and books. She is currently writing a co-authored book with Professor Anna Carline titled: Gendered Anxieties: Exploring State and Legal Responses to Violence Against Women and Girls in the UK and the EU (Emerald Press 2026). Her future research will examine the links between violence against women and artificial intelligence.