"Now Everything Is Violence": Faculty Perceptions of Gender-Based Violence in Higher Education

Abstract

This study is part of the project "Gender-Based Violence and Inequality at the Provincial University of Córdoba: Toward Eradication Policies", carried out and coordinated by Las Tipas, an interdisciplinary feminist academic collective based at the Provincial University of Córdoba. Our aim was to explore how faculty members at the institution perceive gender-based and patriarchal violence, with a particular focus on those forms occurring within the university setting, in order to contribute to the development of feminist universities free from violence. We conducted in-person workshops under the framework of the Micaela Law, along with focus groups involving 350 faculty members across the institution's various degree programs. Employing a qualitative methodology, we collected narratives and experiences from faculty members, highlighting institutional violence, peer-to-peer violence, and violence within hierarchical relationships—especially as they manifest in pedagogical practices. The findings were analyzed and organized into five thematic categories: (a) sexual harassment, (b) reproduction of sexist stereotypes, (c) inclusive language, (d) patriarchal institutional culture, and (e) "reverse violence." The study reveals that structural patriarchal violence is perpetuated through pedagogies of cruelty that circulate within university spaces.