Narratives and power dynamics in gender-based violence: a systematic review

Abstract

Gender-based violence constitutes a structural phenomenon that reproduces matrices of patriarchal, colonial, and capitalist inequality. To understand its complex configurations of power and the modes of agency exercised by affected individuals, a systematic review was conducted following PRISMA guidelines across the WoS, Scopus, ProQuest, and Redalyc databases, consolidating a sample of 71 articles. Methodologically, the reviewed scientific literature reports a privileged use of qualitative approaches over quantitative or mixed methods to address this phenomenon. The findings demonstrate that affected communities transcend passive victimization, establishing themselves as political subjects who articulate everyday resistance anchored in the body and territory. Nonetheless, these emancipatory tactics confront a stark institutional, medical, and academic complicity that renders aggressions invisible through bureaucratic dynamics. In conclusion, systemic transformation demands transcending individualistic approaches, dismantling hegemonic structures through the revaluation of affect, ancestral community knowledge, and counter-hegemonic political practices oriented toward emancipation.