Violence Against Women

The phrase “violence against women” (VAW) has two meanings. First, violence against women is a long-ranging historical phenomenon said to be instituted to protect male property rights through the exchange of women, a result of misogyny, a “patriarchal bargain” between conquering males and enslaved women to ensure protection, a means to correct women's behavior that results from irrationality, original sin, or lack of virtue, or the result of a cultural bias against her sex. Second, VAW is a technical term originating in women's movements and human rights circles in the twentieth century to describe the ways in which women are subordinated to men throughout the world to sustain patriarchy, gender inequality, or masculine domination. While there is no universal theory of patriarchy that people find acceptable, it is true that violence against women, which takes very distinct forms from violence against men, is almost always legitimized by the law or culture within which it takes place, whereas violence against men is routinely prosecuted by law, even in war. Violence against women is a subset of gender violence; examples include battery, bride price, rape, stalking, female genital mutilation, foot binding, honor killing, wife burning, and lesbian bashing. Though violence against women occurs globally, the modern attempt to eliminate it begins in the global North where developed countries often set standards for appropriate treatment of women. Keywords: violence; violence against; women; women's rights