33 THREE Challenges of researching gendered violence Introduction Investigating gendered violence involves a host of challenges, from safety concerns to the ethical questions associated with asking women to recall, relate and relive experiences that often remain highly distressing for many years after. Accordingly, it is imperative that research is designed well so that women and researchers feel and remain safe, emotional distress is minimised and the benefits of participation outweigh the costs. In this chapter, we elaborate on the design of the study
a specific characteristic of the encampments. Others, however, committed themselves to addressing the gendered violence, through direct and indirect action. The varied strategies to construct ‘safe’ or ‘safer’ spaces, however, demonstrated a varied understanding of gendered violence, including who it impacts and the way it might intersect with other forms of oppression. Complicating this struggle further was the external co-optation of these allegations to discredit the movement and justify eviction. Conservative media outlets seized on the spectre of sexual
1 ONE The sexual politics of gendered violence and women’s citizenship Introduction Gendered violence is now such a major problem globally that the United Nations has named it as a significant violation of women’s human rights and freedoms. However, men’s violence against women persists even in those societies where women have formal and equal citizenship. Citizens expect their rights and freedoms to be protected and supported by the state, but statistics report that instances of gendered violence, particularly domestic violence, remain alarmingly high
The challenge of violence against women should be recognised as an issue for the state, citizenship and the whole community. This book examines how responses by the state sanction violence against women and shape a woman’s citizenship long after she has escaped from a violent partner.
Drawing from a long-term study of women’s lives in Australia, including before and after a relationship with a violent partner, it investigates the effects of intimate partner violence on aspects of everyday life including housing, employment, mental health and social participation.
The book contributes to theoretical explanations of violence against women by reframing it through the lens of sexual politics. Finally, it offers critical insights for the development of social policy and practice.
79 FIVE Gendered violence and the self Introduction As one of us sagely observed when we were planning this chapter, it would be more remarkable if a woman did not experience mental health problems as a result of intimate partner violence (IPV) rather than if she did. It is hardly earth-shattering to point out that intimate partner violence has a serious deleterious effect on women’s mental health and wellbeing. What is more noteworthy is the finding from our research that this negative impact often endures for many years afterwards. Unlike our own study
others) and employ staff with less experience of social work and a lower proportion of staff who undertake university courses in gendered violence or other kinds of training. The (non-academic) journal of the National Association for Tenants in Sweden ( Hem and Hyra, 2021 ) investigated complaints to the government’s Health and Social Care Inspectorate (IVO) regarding social services work with gendered violence during 2020. A total of 19 of the 100 complaints concerned shelters for those subjected to violence; they included inadequate security work, substandard housing
publics are positioned in relation to gendered violence. Scholars have explored the role of legislation ( Kennedy, 2018 ), news reporting ( Carter, 1998 ), entertainment programming ( Projansky, 2001 ) and the music industry ( Hill and Savigny, 2019 ) in perpetuating and normalising violence against women. Routinised male violence towards women receives scant media attention ( Soothill and Walby, 1991 ; Carter, 1998 ; Boyle, 2018 ). In mainstream media, stories of male violence towards women often fail to become news; this kind of violence is deemed unnewsworthy ( D
capacities to care for themselves and others, which also exposes them to the possibilities of harm. Ultimately, in its most acute manifestations this is a crippling bind, which can have deeply harmful and at times violent outcomes, as we will go on to further examine. Implosion and gendered violence It was mostly in the accounts of young women where intimate life came through as a central theme, and in particular the pains of loving men involved in life on-road. While loving in the state of supernovae brought passion and excitement, it often precipitated a later
( Mohanty, 1988 ; Crenshaw, 1991 ; Brah, 2001 ; Njambi, 2004 ; de los Reyes, 2005 ; Eliassi, 2013 ; Wikström, 2014 ). We argue that the discursive construction of a problem as gendered or degendered is helpful in understanding the context of, and conditions for, politisation of inequalities in childhoods, and more specifically different children’s access to social justice discourses of equality and power. De/gendering violence: what has childhood got to do with it? In Sweden, the hegemonic discourse on gender equality has been described in terms of ‘equal as
difficulties, and health needs, including addictions, mental health, self-harm and, as highlighted by the World Health Organization (WHO, 2014: 160), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) resulting from gendered violence and substance misuse. Housing is primarily situated as one of Maslow’s ( 1943 : 158) ‘safety needs’ and has been the principle behind the Housing First approach that has been popular in recent decades ( Pleace and Bretherton, 2013 ). Safety and security routinely appear in interviews as being a fundamental issue for women as they are and often remain at risk
