Macrosocietal Factors Biological Factors
How does the larger Is men's violence
society contribute to against women
men's violence against biologically based?
women?
Men's Violence
Against Women
Gender Role Relational Factors
Socialization Factors Do men's and woman's
Does men's gender role verbal and interpersonal
socialization and conflict cause interaction cause men's
men's violence against women? violence against women?
Macrosocietal
- Battering results from historical patterns in America that glorify men's
violence, particularly against women
- Organizational, institutional, and patriarchal structures in society maintain
unequal power relationships between men and women that tacitly
or directly support domestic oppression and violence against women
- Recent changes in gender roles in American society regarding
expectation and realities of women's lives have produced men's fear of power
loss and have increased violence against women.
Biological
- Testosterone or hormonal levels in men contribute to violence against
women
- Neuroanatomical differences and other biological factors in men and
women produce men's tendency to be violent against women
Gender Role Socialization
- Men's misogynistic attitudes toward women, learned during gender role
socialization, contribute to men's violence against women
- Men's patterns of gender role conflict (i.e., control, power, competition
and restrictive emotionality) contribute to patterns of violence against
women
- Men's unidentified and unexpressed emotions (i.e., hurt, pain, shame,
guilt, powerlessness and dependency) are expressed as anger, rage
and violence against women
Relational
- Differently socialized patterns of communication and separate gender
role cultures contribute to men's potential for violence
- Psychological violence between partners can be a precursor to physical
violence against women
- Women's fear of men and men's fear of women contribute to the
potential for psychological and physical violence in relationships
- Both sexes' lack of understanding for the other's gender role
socialization experiences contributes to the potential for violence
- Viewing or experiencing domestic violence in the family of origin
increases the possibility of violence against women
There is no one, single cause of domestic violence, or violence toward women as we can see from the many hypotheses. Men's violence could be a combination of some of the hypotheses, it could be caused by a sole trigger, or something completely different, not listed here. It is simply impossible to pinpoint any one cause of violence or to stereotype the affects of these messages onto any one group of men
Harway, Michele and O'Neil, James M. What Causes Men's Violence Against Women?
