Feminist Theories of Interpersonal Violence

There are various feminist theories of interpersonal violence (e.g., socialist feminism, standpoint feminism, multicultural feminism), but despite this diversity there is a set of assumptions that feminist theories share. First, feminist theorists see gender-that is, the socially constructed expectations, attitudes, and behaviors associated with females and males, typically organized dichotomously as femininity and masculinity-as a central organizing component of social life. This means that in studying any form of behavior, including violence, one must consider in what ways the behavior is gendered; in other words, one must study how gender influences the frequency of the behavior and how it is expressed. Furthermore, instead of conceptualizing gender as natural and dichotomous, feminist theorists see gender as a process that is shaped by and that shapes social action, opportunities, and experiences.

In making the argument that gender shapes and is shaped by social action, opportunities, and experiences, feminists are not claiming that the genders or gender relations are equal or symmetrical. Instead, a second assumption of feminist theories is that on both the structural and the interpersonal levels, one gender is valued over another, a phenomenon called sexism. In American society and many others, male voices and experiences have historically been privileged over female voices and experiences. At the same time, however, not all men are equally privileged, nor are all women disadvantaged equally. A third assumption of feminist theorists, then, is that gender intersects with other demographic factors, including social class, race and ethnicity, age, and sexual orientation, to influence advantage and disadvantage, behavior, opportunities, and experiences.

In theorizing violence, feminists reject traditional legalistic definitions that focus almost exclusively on forms of physical assault, such as beating, kicking, threatening with a weapon, or using a weapon against another person. Feminist theorists consider such definitions too narrow. Instead, feminist theorists adopt a broader definition of violence that includes sexual, psychological, and economic violence as well as physical violence. At the same time, feminist theorists emphasize victims' perceptions and experiences along with the consequences of particular actions, instead of relying on purely legalistic criteria. For example, someone could be injured or harmed by behavior that does not involve physical assault, such as stalking or being constantly berated or insulted. Feminist theorists, therefore, define violence as any act-physical, sexual, or verbal-that is experienced by an individual as a threat, invasion, or assault and that has the effect of harming or degrading that individual or depriving her or him of the ability to control various aspects of daily life, including contact with others.