The end of the Pinochet regime in Chile saw the emergence of an organized feminist movement that influenced legal and social responses to gender-based violence, and with it new laws and avenues for reporting violence that never before existed. What emerged were grassroots women's rights organizations, challenging and engaging the government and NGOs to confront long-ignored problems in responding to marginalized victims.

In Traumatic States, anthropologist Nia Parson explores the development of methods of care and recovery from domestic violence. She interviews and contextualizes the lives of numerous individuals who have confronted these acts, as victims, authorities, and activists. Ultimately, Traumatic States argues that facing the challenges of healing both body and mind, and addressing the fundamental inequalities that make those challenges even more formidable, are part of the same battle.