Confronting Sexism and Violence against Women A Challenge for Social Work

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ISBN: 9780801317576 | 0801317576
Cover: Paperback
Copyright: 2/5/1998

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This unique text explores the multitude of ways that sexism and violence profoundly affect women's lives from sexist language to economic inequalities to sexual harassment and assault. Each chapter includes both policy and practice implications and a continuum model pulls together the various ways women are oppressed in society. Poetry, editorial cartoons, women's personal accounts of violence in their lives, and interesting boxed material engage students.

Chapter 1 PRESENTING THE CONTINUUM: A BRIEF OVERVIEW Sexism and violence perpetrated against women is a serious and pervasive problem affecting all women in one form or another, and social workers must be prepared to address these vital issues at both the personal and the political levels. This chapter outlines a continuum model for understanding such assaults.

Chapter 2 WOMEN'S INSTITUTIONAL STATUS Sexism and violence against women is embedded in the very fabric of our society-encoded in our laws and entrenched in our attitudes. This chapter outlines how the major institutions in our society-politics, the economy, religion, and family systems-support, maintain, and condone the subordination of women. In this chapter, as in all the subsequent chapters, both policy and practice implications are formulated.

Chapter 3 PSYCHOLOGICAL WOUNDS Many of the assaults against women leave physical bruises and scars, but some also leave less visible wounds, which affect women's psyches. This chapter describes the hazards of being raised female in a misogynistic society by focusing on gender socialization, internalized oppression, and the effects of secondary victimization inflicted by traditional mental-health systems. In this chapter, and throughout the text, the unique implications for women of color, lesbian women, disabled women, and other stigmatized populations of women are discussed.

Chapter 4 GENDERED COMMUNICATION Sexism so imbues our everyday actions that it influences the words we speak and the way we touch. This chapter examines exclusionary and hateful language, differential-status indicators, and the use of space and touch to demonstrate dominance and power.

Chapter 5 ECONOMIC ASSAULT ON WOMEN Unequal power results in unequal economic opportunities and outcomes. This chapter details women's secondary economic status, including such topics as the wage gap, unpaid labor, glass and Lucite ceilings, and the impoverishment of women.

Chapter 6 CONTROLLING WOMEN'S BODIES: HEALTH AND REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM In a patriarchy, women's bodies are not their own. This chapter details how women's bodies are controlled in the area of reproductive freedom and women's health by such tactics as fetal-protection policies and medicalization of women's health.

Chapter 7 PORNOGRAPHY AND PROSTITUTION Prostitution and pornography are two vital topics demanding social workers' attention and analysis. This chapter examines the commercialized use of women for men's sexual pleasure, as represented in violence against women in the sex industry.

Chapter 8 SEXUAL HARASSMENT: ASSAULTS ON WOMEN AT WORK AND AT SCHOOL Daily, women run a gauntlet when obtaining an education, working outside the home, or even walking down the street. This chapter looks at the definitions, causes, and consequences of sexual harassment and the role that social workers can play in addressing and ending this assault.

Chapter 9 WOMEN WHO ARE BATTERED Sometimes, lovers break more than hearts. This chapter addresses the physical, sexual, and emotional abuse inflicted on some women by their intimate partners.

Chapter 10 SEXUAL ASSAULT Power and control can be expressed through sexual aggression. This chapter focuses on rape: the causes and consequences of stranger rape, acquaintance rape, and martial rape, as well as the implications for practice and policy.

Chapter 11 BATTERED WOMEN WHO KILL AND FEMICIDE: THE FINAL ACTS OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN The last point on the continuum involves death, both of women who are killed and of women who kill their batterers. The final act of violence is presented both as a distinct issue and as a culmination of the sexism and violence that preceded this final point on the continuum.

Chapter 12 PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL IMPLICATIONS: A CONVERSATION WITH SOCIAL WORKERS The last chapter summarizes themes developed throughout the book and includes discussion of vicarious victimization, connecting the "isms," and a message to male social workers. Social workers who are actively engaged in the struggle to address the issues presented in the continuum and detailed in the previous chapters discuss both the joys and the pain of doing such work. They examine these feelings from both professional and personal perspectives.

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Confronting Sexism and Violence against Women A Challenge for Social Work

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