Degendering Violence

The work of feminist empiricists has been critical for producing statistical evidence of women’s experiences in language that speaks to those in positions of power. By creatively reforming traditional tools of social science quantitative researchers have been able to successfully challenge damaging androcentric depictions of women’s lives and realities and bring to public attention gendered inequalities that were previously obscured and unnamed. This article traces the evolution of feminist influences on government research tools for measuring women’s experiences of male violence and the gradual return to traditional methods and interpretations that reinforce an individualized and de-contextualized masculinist worldview. Once regarded as an important breakthrough for public policy, feminist-inspired social science research tools are being dismantled and the results used once again to support a discourse that de-genders gendered violence.