Healthy, Secure and Gender Just Cities: Transnational Perspectives on Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) in Rio de Janeiro and London

Duration: 01/16 – 05/18

Brazil has long struggled with high levels of violence against women, with thousands killed and injured each year. In turn, many migrant women in the Brazilian diaspora also face high levels of gender-based violence. Healthy, Secure and Gender Just Cities: Transnational Perspectives on Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) in Rio de Janeiro and London seeks to understand this endemic problem in relation to health, citizenship and justice across borders.

Through a study of residents in Complexo da Maré, the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro, and migrants who form the Brazilian diaspora in London, the project will map the current experiences of VAWG in both contexts as well as the current nature of and gaps in service provision for survivors. It will also examine the ways that migration can maintain or reconfigure patterns of gender-based violence.

Combining testimonies, small-scale survey work and service mapping as well as innovative participatory tools mobilized through focus groups and theatre workshops, the project will help provide new insights into the factors that underpin the perpetration of violence against women in Brazil and among its diaspora communities in the UK.

Project Website
Project Twitter

Cathy McIlwaine (Professor of Geography)
Paul Heritage (Professor of Drama and Performance)
Eliana Souza de Silva (Director)
Yara Evans (Research Associate)
Miriam Guindani (Professor)
Joana Garcia (Professor)

• Filmed theatre productions and community-level workshops.
• Two dissemination events in London and Rio de Janeiro.
• Production of three bilingual policy papers for policy makers.
• Co-authored research monograph and journal articles.

Marielle Franco, a black woman and activist who dared ask ‘How many more must die?’23 March 2018

Communicating the experiences of violence against women and girls (VAWG) among Brazilian migrants in London: reflecting on the role of the performing arts
15 February 2018

How can we make the world’s cities safer for women and girls?
23 October 2016

Evans, Y and McIlwaine, C (2017) Supporting Brazilian Women in London: Service Provision for Survivors of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) [PDF 2,713KB], QMUL/ESRC/UT/PPP/LAWRS/CASA/UFRJ/RedesdaMaré: London.

Evans, Y and McIlwaine, C (2016) Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG): A spectrum approach [PDF 668KB], QMUL: London

Morgado, R e Souza, I (2016) Violência contra mulheres e meninas (VCMM): uma abordagem sobre o estado da arte [PDF 593KB], Escola de Serviço Social, UFRJ: Rio de Janeiro