Abstract
This chapter is concerned with a range of different types of violence against women: wifebeating, rape, child sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and pornography. In some of the literature these are considered as separate topics. Here they are treated as part of a spectrum of violence with the aim of demonstrating that our understanding of each form of violence is enhanced by considering them together. This does not mean that we can generalise from one kind of violence to all others without qualification. Rather it is to acknowledge the interrelationship between different kinds of violence, particularly in terms of their impact on and consequences for women’s lives.
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Further reading
Beatrix Campbell, Unofficial Secrets (London, Virago, 1988). A good introduction to the issue of child sexual abuse by looking at the Cleveland affair. It traces the way in which abuse was diagnosed, the effect on the children and the role of a variety of professionals, especially social workers, the police and the medical profession, in the context of a particular incident in northeast England. The book also considers the way in which the media took up the issue and how various distortions of detail and information took place.
Jalna Hanmer and Mary Maynard (eds), Women, Violence and Social Control (London, Macmillan, 1987). This book collects together a number of articles that illustrate a variety of different kinds of violence and the ways in which this violence can control women. Focus ranges from chapters which introduce new empirical areas for discussion, such as flashing, psychosurgery and language abuse, to those which are more concerned with conceptual and theoretical matters relating to how violence should be defined. Other contributions focus on women’s experiences of courts of law; feminist responses to domestic violence; and masculinity and violence.
Liz Kelly, Surviving Sexual Violence (Oxford, Polity, 1988). Based on indepth interviews with sixty women, this book focuses on women’s experiences of a whole range of forms of sexual violence over their lifetimes. The book emphasises the importance of allowing women’s own views and definitions as to what constitutes violence to have a voice. In it Kelly develops the concept of a continuum of violence to show that women’s understanding of what is violent, and the significance of violence in their lives, can differ quite drastically from legal and other professional perspectives. The book concludes with a discussion of the implications of the study for feminist services and political organisations.
Carol Smart, Feminism and the Power of the Law (London, Routledge, 1989). This book is concerned with rape, pornography, child sexual abuse and domestic violence. It considers how these issues are defined legalistically and the con sequences of such definitions for women’s lives. The book also explores what happens to women in courts of law when they have been abused by men. It describes how women’s evidence and experiences tend to be marginalised, to the extent that it cannot be said that they get a fair hearing. The author describes how women who have been abused receive a‘second assault’ in the courts, because they are frequently subjected to intrusive and unsympathetic questioning. She concludes that the legal system is constructed on heterosexist and patriarchal assumptions which means, certainly in cases involving violence or issues of sexuality, that it is biased in favour of men.
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© 1993 Mary Maynard
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Maynard, M. (1993). Violence Towards Women. In: Richardson, D., Robinson, V. (eds) Introducing Women’s Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-22595-8_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-22595-8_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-54197-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-22595-8
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)