Should Global Violence be Examined Through a Gendered Lens?
The Case For:
What is a gendered analysis of violence and what would it do?
A gendered analysis places abuse in intimate relationships in a wider conceptual framework
which locates violence and abuse within the gendered context of men’s and women’s lives.
It contends that violence can only be understood properly by acknowledging the continuum
of violence against women and girls as a major global problem.
What do we mean by gender?
Observing global violence as gendered does not mean all perpetrators are male and all
victims are female. We must distinguish between sex and gender.
Sex refers to biological characteristics (anatomical and genetic).
Gender refers to the array of social constructed roles, traits, attitudes, behaviours, values,
responsibilities, power, status and influence.
These are learned and changeable over time and widely vary across cultures.
Not just describing differences between men and women but the relationships between and
among them, as well as to the social structures & mechanisms which affect our everyday
lives.
Gender conditions the way human beings and perceived and how they are expected to think
and act.
History of gendered characteristics:
Attribution of ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ characteristics is based on norms and values deeply
woven into our relationships, families, communities and societies.
These learned characteristics do not just instil difference between men and women, but also
assign unequal value and privilege to men and women.
Historically, cultural traditions have ascribed superior status to masculinity and have
developed diverse hierarchal gender orders legitimising male control over females.
Such gender orders intersect with those constructed around race, class, ethnicity and
sexuality in complex ways to foster and sustain inequality.
Gender remains the overriding context for all kinds of violence.
A gendered analysis:
A gendered analysis offers a valuable conceptual tool:
A framework for collecting, examining and interpreting information about the differences in
men’s and women’s lives, experiences, behaviours and status.
It also investigates the social, economic, political and cultural structures and ideologies
which serve to maintain or transform gender-based stereotypes, inequalities and abuses.
Global violence can only be properly understood by considering its history, context,
meanings, impact and consequences through the lens of gender.
To say that domestic abuse is gender-based is simply to recognise that the socially attributed
norms, roles and expectations of masculinity and femininity which affect intimate
relationships and family structures are integral to the use and experience of violence and
abuse, whether perpetrated by men or by women.
, The gendered social environment will affect prevalence, intention and consequences of
abuse differentially, for men and women, and requires analysis.
But the intersections of class, ethnicity, sexuality will also impact on the experience and
meaning of domestic abuse: it is neither a unitary nor a simple phenomenon, and our
analysis must take account of complexity in a world of enduring gender inequality.
What is the Continuum of Violence Against Women:
The concept of a continuum was developed by Liz Kelly in Surviving Sexual Violence 1988.
Her concern was to change Violence Against Women as episodic and deviant incidents of
extreme cruelty and harm, to recognising that it is normative and functional, and an every
day experience for girls across the world.
Kelly claims, rather, that aberrant forms of VAW are extremes at one end of a broad
spectrum of socially sanctioned male aggression, coercive behaviour, notions of male
entitlement and deep-rooted patriarchal 15 norms.
So, for example, ‘stranger’ rape is the extreme end of a spectrum of sexist jokes, sexual
harassment, intimate intrusions, coercive sex with dates or partners.
These are all included in the everyday experiences of women and girls, and for which there is
widespread tolerance.
(Eg Zero Tolerance research has found that up to 1 in 2 young men and 1 in 3 young women
believe that forced sex is justifiable in certain circumstances).
‘Violence against women is not the result of random, individual acts of misconduct, but
rather is deeply rooted in structural relationships of inequality between women and men…
Violence constitutes a continuum across the lifespan of women, from before birth to old
age. It cuts across both the public and the private spheres’ - (Ending Violence Against
Women: from Words to Action, UN Secretary General’s Report 2006)
What are the consequences of VAW regardless of context or setting?
Threats and harm to safety
Limits on ‘space for action’ (Lundgren), agency, capacity
Physical harm, injury, disability, infection, illness, death
Psychological harm – anxiety, depression, stress, trauma
Betrayal and sometimes destruction of self-worth, esteem, ability to trust
Dishonour, shame, disgrace, stigmatization, ostracism (cultural, religious,
social)
Impact on earning power, achievements, livelihood, ability to recognize or
fulfil potential, place in society, status
Although the continuum exists, is it still necessary to find differences?
The continuum enables understanding of the commonalities, but it is still vital to account for
differences which shape the context and consequences of violence in real lives.
It is not helpful or true to suggest violence effects all women equally regardless of race,
class, sexual orientation etc.
Stating DV affects all equally, trivialises the dimensions underlying the experiences of
particular abuse victims and the ways we analyse the prevalence an impact of the violence
against them. (Sokoloff & Dupont 2005).
Individual women and social structures are affected in particular ways by the intersections of
oppressions and circumstances.
The Case For:
What is a gendered analysis of violence and what would it do?
A gendered analysis places abuse in intimate relationships in a wider conceptual framework
which locates violence and abuse within the gendered context of men’s and women’s lives.
It contends that violence can only be understood properly by acknowledging the continuum
of violence against women and girls as a major global problem.
What do we mean by gender?
Observing global violence as gendered does not mean all perpetrators are male and all
victims are female. We must distinguish between sex and gender.
Sex refers to biological characteristics (anatomical and genetic).
Gender refers to the array of social constructed roles, traits, attitudes, behaviours, values,
responsibilities, power, status and influence.
These are learned and changeable over time and widely vary across cultures.
Not just describing differences between men and women but the relationships between and
among them, as well as to the social structures & mechanisms which affect our everyday
lives.
Gender conditions the way human beings and perceived and how they are expected to think
and act.
History of gendered characteristics:
Attribution of ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ characteristics is based on norms and values deeply
woven into our relationships, families, communities and societies.
These learned characteristics do not just instil difference between men and women, but also
assign unequal value and privilege to men and women.
Historically, cultural traditions have ascribed superior status to masculinity and have
developed diverse hierarchal gender orders legitimising male control over females.
Such gender orders intersect with those constructed around race, class, ethnicity and
sexuality in complex ways to foster and sustain inequality.
Gender remains the overriding context for all kinds of violence.
A gendered analysis:
A gendered analysis offers a valuable conceptual tool:
A framework for collecting, examining and interpreting information about the differences in
men’s and women’s lives, experiences, behaviours and status.
It also investigates the social, economic, political and cultural structures and ideologies
which serve to maintain or transform gender-based stereotypes, inequalities and abuses.
Global violence can only be properly understood by considering its history, context,
meanings, impact and consequences through the lens of gender.
To say that domestic abuse is gender-based is simply to recognise that the socially attributed
norms, roles and expectations of masculinity and femininity which affect intimate
relationships and family structures are integral to the use and experience of violence and
abuse, whether perpetrated by men or by women.
, The gendered social environment will affect prevalence, intention and consequences of
abuse differentially, for men and women, and requires analysis.
But the intersections of class, ethnicity, sexuality will also impact on the experience and
meaning of domestic abuse: it is neither a unitary nor a simple phenomenon, and our
analysis must take account of complexity in a world of enduring gender inequality.
What is the Continuum of Violence Against Women:
The concept of a continuum was developed by Liz Kelly in Surviving Sexual Violence 1988.
Her concern was to change Violence Against Women as episodic and deviant incidents of
extreme cruelty and harm, to recognising that it is normative and functional, and an every
day experience for girls across the world.
Kelly claims, rather, that aberrant forms of VAW are extremes at one end of a broad
spectrum of socially sanctioned male aggression, coercive behaviour, notions of male
entitlement and deep-rooted patriarchal 15 norms.
So, for example, ‘stranger’ rape is the extreme end of a spectrum of sexist jokes, sexual
harassment, intimate intrusions, coercive sex with dates or partners.
These are all included in the everyday experiences of women and girls, and for which there is
widespread tolerance.
(Eg Zero Tolerance research has found that up to 1 in 2 young men and 1 in 3 young women
believe that forced sex is justifiable in certain circumstances).
‘Violence against women is not the result of random, individual acts of misconduct, but
rather is deeply rooted in structural relationships of inequality between women and men…
Violence constitutes a continuum across the lifespan of women, from before birth to old
age. It cuts across both the public and the private spheres’ - (Ending Violence Against
Women: from Words to Action, UN Secretary General’s Report 2006)
What are the consequences of VAW regardless of context or setting?
Threats and harm to safety
Limits on ‘space for action’ (Lundgren), agency, capacity
Physical harm, injury, disability, infection, illness, death
Psychological harm – anxiety, depression, stress, trauma
Betrayal and sometimes destruction of self-worth, esteem, ability to trust
Dishonour, shame, disgrace, stigmatization, ostracism (cultural, religious,
social)
Impact on earning power, achievements, livelihood, ability to recognize or
fulfil potential, place in society, status
Although the continuum exists, is it still necessary to find differences?
The continuum enables understanding of the commonalities, but it is still vital to account for
differences which shape the context and consequences of violence in real lives.
It is not helpful or true to suggest violence effects all women equally regardless of race,
class, sexual orientation etc.
Stating DV affects all equally, trivialises the dimensions underlying the experiences of
particular abuse victims and the ways we analyse the prevalence an impact of the violence
against them. (Sokoloff & Dupont 2005).
Individual women and social structures are affected in particular ways by the intersections of
oppressions and circumstances.
