Feminist Perspectives on Wife Abuse: An Introduction (From Feminist Perspectives on Wife Abuse, 1988, P 11-26, Kersti Yllo and Michele Bograd, eds. -- See NCJ-142227)

• NCJ Number: 142228
• Author(s): M Bograd
• Date Published: 1988
• Length: 16 pages
• Sale Source: Sage Publications, Inc
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This introductory section explains the volume's primary focus on wife abuse despite the trend to study battering as a form of "family violence" and outlines as well as clarifies the dimensions common to all feminist perspectives on wife abuse.

Abstract

Four major dimensions emerge as common to all feminist perspectives on wife abuse: the explanatory utility of the constructs of gender and power, the analysis of the family as a historically situated social institution, the critical importance of understanding and validating women's experiences, and employing scholarship for women. Popular psychological and sociological explanatory theories about wife abuse mostly lack a political or feminist perspective. Feminist perspectives provide information about what the public thinks about the causes and contexts of wife abuse and also raise important and difficult questions about the nature of conventional research in this area. 24 references