The Business of Mediation

Chapter 4 examines the organizations that intervened in domestic disputes and analyzes their reasons for intervening. These organizations included women’s nongovernmental organizations, women’s committees, political parties, and criminal gangs. Members of these organizations worked as brokers, transforming grievances into the language of the law and mediating between women and the state. Brokers had distinct and at times contradictory understandings of domestic violence and gender inequality, and some were even ideologically opposed to legal claims and women’s rights. Yet, all of them profited from their mediation services. Domestic disputes provided them access to financial, social, cultural, and political capital: opportunities to establish and expand their community presence, appear socially relevant, secure jobs, raise money, and form personal relationships with state officials.