Document 6428312

3/29/2011
Gendered Violence
Microcosm and Macrocosm:
Interpersonal, Family, and State.
Overview:

WMST 103
March 29, 2011
Anita Shaw
Violence:
When one person takes
control, even temporarily,
of another person’s body
or life.
Masculinity.
The gendered nature of violence.
Domestic violence.
Women who are violent.
Sexual violence.
Military violence.
Hate crimes.
Another way to think about this…
Gendered Violence:
1) occurs due to the power
imbalance between women
and men and
2) serves to maintain that
imbalance.
“Men are overwhelmingly more
violent than women” Kimmel & Holler, p. 342.

Violence:
 most highly gendered behaviour.
 holds inequality in place.
place
- reflects and perpetuates inequality.
 90% of all murders are committed by men.
Masculinity

Theories about male violence:
 Biology:
 Hormones.
y theory.
y
 Evolutionary
 Psychology:
 Frustration-aggression hypothesis.
 War as defense.
 Cross-cultural studies:
 Bravado/fear.
 Sexual bellicosity/cooperation.
Interpersonal violence AND intersocietal violence is linked to
gender inequality.
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Gender-based violence: Victims.

“Violence that is directed against a person on the basis
of gender or sex. It includes acts that inflict physical,
mental, or sexual harm or suffering, threat of such acts,
coercion and other deprivations of liberty”
coercion,
liberty (Human
Rights Watch).
Who is Vulnerable?

 All women. Everywhere.
 A global public health issue.
 Crosses all ethnic, racial,
religious,
g
, age,
g , social and
economic groups.
 Some are more vulnerable:
 women with disabilities,
 geographically-isolated
women,
 young women (age 15-24),
 and Aboriginal women.
But aren’t women violent too?

Rates of perpetration of spousal violence by a
current or previous partner in last 5 years:
Women - 7%
Men - 6%
Violence Against Women Through the Life Cycle
Phase
Prenatal
Infancy
Childhood
Type
Prenatal sex selection, battering during pregnancy,
coerced pregnancy (rape during war)
Female infanticide, emotional and physical abuse,
differential access to food and medical care
Genital cutting; incest and sexual abuse; differential access
to food,, medical care,, and education;; child prostitution
p
Adolescence Dating and courtship violence, economically coerced sex,
sexual abuse in the workplace, rape, sexual harassment,
forced prostitution
Reproductive Abuse of women by intimate partners, marital rape,
dowry abuse and murders, partner homicide,
psychological abuse, sexual abuse in the workplace,
sexual harassment, rape, abuse of women with disabilities
Old Age
Abuse of widows, elder abuse (which affects mostly
women)
Family Violence

Domestic violence in Canada:
1993 Violence Against Women Survey:
 25% of women had been abused by
y an intimate
partner at least
l
once.
 51% of all women had experienced at least one
incident of physical or sexual abuse by age 16.
2004 Statistical Profile of Family Violence:
 Females - 85% of all reported incidents of partner
violence.
 Women 25-34 most at risk.
Men’s and Women’s Violence:
Similar but Different

Women’s experiences are different from men’s:
 More serious types of violence.
 More frequent
q
incidents of violence.
 More likely to be injured as a result.
 More likely to fear for their lives.
 More likely to have daily activities curtailed.
Between 40 and 70% of female homicides were
committed by a male partner. (WHO, 2002).
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Child Abuse

 Women also culpable.
 Physical abuse related to “corporal punishment”.
 Overwhelmingly perpetrated by males.
Includes siblings, etc.
Responsible for 10 times the amount of serious harm
and almost all deaths.
Gendered differences:

 MEN use violence
instrumentally:
 WOMEN use violence
expressively
or defensively:
 Maintains the
system.
 Reacting to the
system.
Shared power = less violence
Entitlement:

Sexual Violence:

Once considered:
E.g.
E
g “As
As long as you
you’re
re living under
my roof, …”
 Very rare.
rare
 A stranger.
 Extreme physical
violence.
Or “Those (insert name of ethnic
group), taking all the jobs. Why don’t
they go back where they came from?”
Prior to the 1980s this would have been
assumed to be a “typical rape scenario.”
Sexual Violence: How has our
understanding changed?






1970s: Feminist consciousness raising.
1972: First Rape Crisis Centre.
1973: Study of female suicide attempters.
p in Marriage,
g Diana Russell.
1982: Rape
1990s: Mary Koss; raised awareness of “date rape.”
A continuum of heterosexual coercion
Consensual Sex___________________________________Rape
which is supported and perpetuated by gender inequality.
Rape as a Weapon of War

“Approximately 75 per cent
of the estimated 60
million displaced persons
from conflict and
disasters worldwide are
women and children, who
often face considerable
hardships in situations of
displacement, including
sexual violence and
abuse.” UN.
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War and Masculinity

The Language of War:
Penetration and domination.
 Masculine war roles
depend upon feminine
war roles.




Wif girlfriend.
Wife,
i lf i d
Mother.
Nurse.
Prostitute.
Victory is confirmation
of male identity; defeat
is emasculation.
All confirm militarized
masculinity.
Hate Crimes

Sexuality, Domination, and Violence

 Femicide
•Language of penetration and domination is deployed in male-female and
male-male encounters
•This language also permeates interactions between states
 Woman-killing as a gendered hate crime.
 Indigenous women between the ages of 25 and 44 five times more likely than all other women of the
same age to die as the result of violence.
 Over the past twenty years more than five hundred
Indigenous women may have been murdered or gone
missing in circumstances suggesting violence.
Summary:

Hate Crimes: Other Risk Factors

 Sexual orientation
 Gender identity
 Possibly
oss b y tthee most
ost vulnerable
u e ab e g
group.
oup.
 Disability
Violence is possibly the most gendered behavior.
Men’s violence is typically instrumental.
Women’s violence is typically
yp
y defensive or expressive.
p
Interpersonal and state violence linked to masculine
ideologies.
 Gendered violence reflects and perpetuates gender
inequality.




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Bibliography.

Facts and Figures on Women, Peace, and Security. A United Nations Publication.
2005.
http://www.womenwatch.org/womenwatch/ianwge/taskforces/wps/WPS_
Facts.pdf Accessed 26 March, 2009.
Family Violence in Canada: A Statistical Profile. 2006. Canadian Centre for Justice
Statistics. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-224-x/85-224-x2006000-eng.pdf
Accessed 26 March
March, 2009.
2009
Family Violence in Canada: A Statistical Profile. 2005. Canadian Centre for Justice
Statistics. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-224-x/85-224-x2005000-eng.pdf
Accessed 26 March, 2009.
Gavey, Nicola. Just Sex? The Cultural Scaffolding of Rape. Routledge, New York, 2005.
Goldstein, Joshua. War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa.
Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Klein, Jessie. “Teaching her a lesson: Media misses boys' rage relating to girls in
school shootings.” Crime, Media, and Culture, 2005;1 (1) 90-97.
http://cmc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/1/1/90 Accessed 2 April 2009.
Reardon, Betty. Sexism and the War System. Syracuse University Press, 1985.
Starhawk. Why We Need Women’s Actions and Feminist Voices for Peace.
http://www.starhawk.org/activism/activism-writings/womensvoices.html
Accessed 26 March, 2009.
“Wars, Wimps, and Women:
Talking Gender and Thinking
War.”

Discussion questions:
1. What does Carol Cohn mean when she talks about
a “gendered discourse”?
2. Does she consider participation voluntary?
3. What is a critical implication of gender discourse?
4. Why is gendered discourse so powerful? Why did
the term “wimp” have such resonance for her?
5. Can you think of similar, personal experiences
with gender discourse?
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