Equality with a Vengeance: Men's Rights Groups, Battered Women, and Antifeminist Backlash

5. Sex Differences

81 5 Sex Differences Violence in the home is a frequent occurrence in contemporary society . . . the use of force between adults in the home is systematically and disproportionately directed at women. Recent interpretations of these reports [research on violence, aggression, and conflict tactics] often mention the first finding but usually fail to recognize or emphasize the direction of the violence and grasp the significance of both of these findings. —Dobash and Dobash 1979, 15 Straus and Gelles are two of the many researchers who have found domestic violence distributed equally between the sexes. —Dunn 1994, 16–17 It is categorically false to imply that there are the same number of “battered” men as there are battered women. —Gelles 1999 Debates about the magnitude of sex disparities in violence against intimates reflect ideological differences between scholars in multiple disciplines . These debates are important because they color considerations of the meaning, dynamics, and appropriate responses to violence (Johnson and Ferraro 2000; Renzetti 1994; Schwartz 2000).As Johnson and Ferraro (2000) have pointed out, it is impossible to discuss the research on violence against intimates without acknowledging the disagreements about how to measure and understand it. Calls for consideration of the context and meaning of violence are not new. By all accounts, the historical, cultural , social, and interpersonal contexts of violence against women have been of primary importance since the beginning of the battered women’s movement (Dobash and Dobash 1979; Ferraro 1996; Gordon 1988; Martin 82 | Equality with a Vengeance 1981; Pagelow 1981; Pleck 1987; Schechter 1982; Schneider 2000; Yllö and Bograd 1988). Dobash and Dobash argued in 1979, A greater understanding of violence will be achieved through a careful consideration of the nature of the social settings and situations in which it occurs. Investigations that attempt to abstract physical violence out of its social settings and focus primarily on the backgrounds or personal characteristics of individuals are not likely to lead to an elucidation of interpersonal violence. (14) Thirty years on, this observation is still timely. Efforts to institutionalize individualized and decontextualized understandings of violence continue unabated. Scholars have extensively documented efforts to depoliticize and degender domestic violence (Berns 2001; Klein 1997; Lamb 1991; Lerman 1992). Claire Renzetti wrote in 1994, “I am dismayed by what I perceive as persistent,though certainly not insurmountable,obstacles to fuller understanding of—and, therefore, the development of more effective responses to—intimate violence,” namely “the continuing debate surrounding the question of whether women are as violent as men” (195). Renzetti expressed surprise that some criminologists continued to present feminist perspectives on violence against women as monolithic or advocating a “single factor” perspective on intimate violence; implying that patriarchy is the only cause of men’s violence against women and that patriarchy itself is a single factor. She noted, “Many feminists have been among the most vocal critics of one-dimensional models of human behavior, including violent behavior” (196). Renzetti was referring to such claims as those made by Donald Dutton:“during the late 1970s a number of singlefactor explanations for male assaultiveness toward women were proffered. These included socio-biology, psychiatric disorders, and patriarchy” (internal citations omitted) (1994,167).However,feminism’s focus on a multiplicity of factors is clear from the most cursory investigation of early and recent research (Miller 1994). Furthermore, patriarchy cannot accurately be described as a single factor. Susan Schechter’s Women and Male Violence (1982) was the first comprehensive account of the history of the battered women’s movement in the United States. In a section entitled,“Ideological and Personal Diversity within the Movement,” Schechter stated that while “feminists in the battered women’s movement did not always agree on the meaning or implications of feminism” (44), feminism should be viewed as an umbrella Sex Differences | 83 term for a variety of political and ideological orientations advocating equity between the sexes. She observed that none of the approaches these feminists took to woman abuse could be accurately termed “single factor ” theories. Battered women’s shelters were established because a combination of factors—the gendered interpersonal dynamics of violence, women’s lower earning power, and such social and cultural factors as women’s primary responsibility for child care, social disapproval of divorce , and police apathy—effectively trap women in abusive relationships (Schechter 1982). Those working in the battered women’s movement have emphasized the links between gender, politics, culture, and economics from the beginning and...