Producing compassion. Supporting survivors of domestic violence in France and in the USA

Since the women’s liberation movement of the 1970s, feminist groups have been formed in order to support and provide shelter to survivors of domestic violence and their children in France and in the United States. Drawing upon a sociohistorical and ethnographic study that I conducted in the Paris region and in Los Angeles, this article shows how the politicization and professionalization of emotions are entangled in the professional sphere of these feminist organizations. In France and the United States, the emotions developed by the feminist activists and professionals were quite similar. When the professional system for tackling the domestic violence cause was set up, anger was replaced by compassion. However, these emotions are understood and shaped in different ways depending on the local context. This comparison between the two spheres of activism illustrates how compassion is produced in activist organizations.