Prof. Dr. Carol Hagemann-WhiteRenate Klein
Department of EducationCollege of Education and Human University of Osnabrueck Development
D-49069 OsnabrueckUniversity of Maine
GermanyOrono, ME 04469, USA
Tel. +49 541 969 4557Tel: + 1 207 581 3149
Fax: +49 541 969 4561Fax: +1 207 581 3120
Email: -mail:
Workshop abstract
"Peace, human rights, and conflict management: concepts and strategies to overcome gender-based violence“
Panel presentation by the „Interdisciplinary European research network on gender, conflict and violence“
For over two decades feminists have pointed to men’s violence against women in everyday life and in personal relationships as a challenge to ideals such as peace, democracy, civil society and human rights. Not only is it an ugly fact in itself, it is indicative of structural inequality, problematic gender norms and other deep-seated societal problems. Yet there has been little interaction between the study of violence in gender relations and other work - theoretical, empirical and practical - addressing strategies and alternatives to violence.
Developments in 90s suggest that some new avenues of interdisciplinary dialogue are opening up. In „mainstream“ discussions of conflict management, for example, or of human rights there is more awareness of the interconnections of gender and power and the need to include an understanding of gender relations in building theory. There seem to be some converging tendencies in separate fields from which new perspectives could emerge.
A case in point is the recent emphasis in peace studies on interactive conflict management and on the everyday world. One result of this shift in focus has been more attention to gender and to empowerment strategies. Parallel in time, the study of violence against women has grown beyond an early focus on women as victims to include researching and challenging men’s violence as well as closer attention to involvement of children. There are now many more approaches from a social networks or community point of view which - as in peace studies - pursue the twofold aims of reducing violence on the one hand, increasing empowerment and participation on the other. The workshop aims to explore such converging, overlapping or perhaps contradictory trends
The European research network on gender, conflict and violence was created in 1996 to facilitate an interdisciplinary and transnational exchange on current research and conceptual frameworks, bringing together work on interpersonal conflict and on family issues with work on violence against women and on child abuse. The network is a forum for exploring the causes, conditions and context of gender-based violence as well as the aims and consequences of social responses to it and their potential for working towards non-violent conflict management on the interpersonal, the community and the societal level.
In their contributions to the workshop, members of the network draw on their own empirical and theoretical work to discuss how they study the realities of gender and power and conceptualize alternatives to violence. We invite interested colleagues to join the network!
Infrastructure for cross-disciplinary, transnational research to curb gender violence
Renate C.A. Klein
Theoretical and empirical connections between research on violence against women, community-based peace research, and research on non-violent conflict management and dispute resolution will offer fresh insights into strategies to curb gender violence.
Intricate interactive, social, and cultural processes that are embedded in their sociocultural environment sustain gender violence as well as non-violent conflict management and dispute resolution. Research to address gender violence can benefit from perspectives that are inclusive of different theoretical traditions, open to a variety of empirical approaches, and sensitive to cultural differences. Realizing cross-disciplinary, transnational research, however, faces numerous conceptual, methodological, and logistical challenges. Issues arising within disciplines such as the structuring (and limiting) function of conceptual frameworks, the validity and comparability of measurements and indicators, as well as sampling techniques and study designs are particularly challenging in comparative research projects.
The European Research Network of Conflict, Gender, and Violence seeks to be a forum where scholars from different disciplines and countries can come together to discuss different research traditions and develop innovative approaches. The network seeks to bring to bear the expertise of its diverse membership on current research issues at the intersections of gender, conflict, violence and culture by serving as a link between scholars in violence against women, interpersonal conflict, child abuse and related fields. Since 1996, annual meetings have encouraged open dialogue and in-depth discussion among participants from diverse academic backgrounds, and provided a springboard for joint publications and research projects (Hagemann-White & Gardlo, 1997a,b; Klein, 1998; European Research Network, 1998).
In one ongoing collaborative project we are engaged in comparative research that looks at the meaning of violent and nonviolent acts in intimate, heterosexual relationships (Klein & Kwiatkowska, 1999). We asked Polish and U.S. women and men to consider acts of violence and acts of non-violent conflict management that were attributed to either a male or female partner. In an open-ended format respondents generated possible outcomes and benefits for each act. Based on multiple readings and careful content coding the analyses will focus on the interplay of gender (of respondent as well as target person) and culture in the construction of meaning around interpersonal violence and non-violence. This work indicates the extent to which thinking about violence and non-violence in embedded in cultural, taken-for-granted notions of gendered entitlements, obligations, expected behavior consequences.
Membership in the network is informal with no fees. Presently, I serve as network coordinator, maintaining a web site and keeping a list of active participants. Visit the web site at If you would like to join, send e-mail to .
References:
European Research Network (1998). Approaches and Strategies towards Ending Interpersonal Violence, Proceedings. 3rd meeting of the European Research Network on Conflict, Gender and Violence, August 23-26, 1998, Stockholm, Sweden.
HagemannWhite, C. & Gardlo, S. (1997) (eds.) Interdisciplinary European Workshop: Family conflict and domestic violence. Workshop report.
HagemannWhite, C. & Gardlo, S (1997) ‘Konflikte und Gewalt in der Familie’, Zeitschrift für Frauenforschung, 15, 7396.
Klein, R.C.A. (1998)(Ed.)Multidisciplinary perspectives on family violence, London: Routledge.
Klein, R.C.A. & Kwiatkowska, A. (1999). Representations of intimate male violence in the United States and Poland. Paper prepared for the Council of Europe seminar ”Men and violence against women”, October 7-8, 1999, Strasbourg, France.
Concepts and Strategies to Overcome Gender-based Violence: Notes on Greenland
Bo Wagner Sørensen
Department of Antropology
University of Copenhagen
Fredriksholms Kanal 4
1220 Copenhagen K, Denmark
Tel: + 45 35 32 34 81 or + 45 35 32 34 64
Fax: + 45 35 32 34 65
E-mail:
Concepts and strategies to overcome gender-based violence is part of the
title of this workshop. However, the concepts and strategies that one may
find usable in this respect are - not surprisingly - dependent on how one
perceives and tends to explain violence in the first place. Violence in
this paper refers to men's violence to known women - that is, wife beating
or male domestic violence against women. I will briefly mention three
perspectives that might be well-known, and for the sake of clarity I will
put them in a rather simplistic way.
If male violence against women is ultimately seen as a cry for help
on the part of the perpetrator, psycho-therapy may seem the proper
solution. If male violence against women is seen to be the result of a
breakdown in the social order, the solution would be one of striving
towards recovering the lost social order or trying to create a new one. If
male violence against women is seen as an instrumental act that is moreover
condoned by society at large by being neglected and belittled, the answer
seems to be one of public awareness, zero tolerance and action on the part
of both ordinary people and the state or local government.
The first two mentioned perspectives on male violence against women
may be comprised under the 'symptom approach' label, according to which men
are either violent because they are out of balance or because something has
gone wrong in society - that is, society is out of balance somehow - which,
in turn, affect some men, making them prone to violence. In both cases,
men's use of violence can be interpreted as a reaction to circumstances
beyond their control. On the face of it, both perspectives are gender
neutral, but, in fact, they are deeply rooted in conventional gender
thinking.
The third perspective represents an actor-oriented approach,
according to which the man turns to violence in order to control or
discipline his wife or female partner, typically thinking that he is
entitled to do so. In the same process his masculinity is confirmed. The
distinctive feature of this approach is a focus on motivated action rather
than reaction (cf. Lundgren 1995; Moore 1994).
It seems that the so-called symptom approach to male violence
against women is the more widespread in the public at large, at least in
western societies. The same strong tendency was found in my own research on
wife beating in Greenland (Soerensen 1990, 1994, 1998).
Violence against women in Greenland
Greenland is a former Danish colony whose colonial status was abolished in
1953 when Greenland became an integral part of the Kingdom of Denmark, thus
giving Greenlanders equal status to Danes. When Greenland Home Rule was
established in 1979, the Greenlandic population achieved a high degree of
self-government.
The dominant public discourse on violence against women in
Greenland is characterized by a focus on rapid and extensive social and
cultural change. Greenlanders are thus represented as a people in
transition, caught between tradition and modernity, the result being that
people suffer from what is sometimes referred to as 'acculturative stress'
(see, for instance, Bjerregaard & Young 1998). Diverse social phenomena are
seen as symptoms of an underlying problem of socio-cultural alienation. In
short, violence against women is seen as one of many 'social diseases' that
ultimately spring from a society out of balance.
The public discourse is pregnant with structural-functionalist and
idealist assumptions: a stable, balanced society based on its own
socio-cultural premises is believed not to produce violence and other
so-called social diseases, or at least not to the actual degree. Such
diseases are basically the result of an 'enforced', rapid modernization
which has made its imprint on local minds.
There are other, more gender-sensitive discourses on violence
against women in Greenland, but even so there is a tendency to conflate
women's problems with the problems of the Greenlandic people as such. The
'germs' of oppression, violence and abuse are seen to originate from
outside. The same tendency is found among other indigenous peoples. As
Sjoerslev puts it: "(..) it may reflect the way most indigenous women and
men see their situation: That the problems of women are a consequence of
the problems of the indigenous peoples as such. (...) The crucial step
forward in resolving indigenous women's problems is thus regarded by most
indigenous peoples as the acquisition of self determination" (Sjoerslev
1998:309).
Even if wife beating is widely acknowledged as a problem in
Greenland, it is also seen as a fact of life. In practice it is more often
than not both belittled and excused on the grounds that the perpetrator was
drunk, a victim of emotional turbulence and/or (maternal) upbringing, etc.,
which may all point back to the traditional/modern dichotomy. At the same
time, wife beating is protected by privacy in the sense that is it often
believed to involve two equal parties who have chosen to lead this kind of
life within the confines of their home. "It takes two" and "they fight" are
common everyday expressions, indicating that both parties are more or less
responsible. The public/private split also means that wife beating is
outside public control to a large degree.
The present dilemma
To sum up, the Greenlandic situation is marked by a tendency to externalize
violence, and at the same time violence is protected by privacy. This dire
combination seems to make fertile ground for violent acts and the
continuation of male violence against women.
Self-determination has been the prime goal among Greenlanders, and
Greenland Home Rule meets and ensures this goal to a high degree. Still,
however, violence (against women) tends to be externalized and not spoken
of in its own right. Mainstream politicians and activists tend to emphasize
collective rights from an indigenous peoples' perspective, focusing on
traditional cultural characteristics (cf. the UN Declaration on the
Indigenous Peoples' Rights), whereas women's problems and special women's
rights tend to be marginalized. The CEDAW convention (the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women) is virtually
unknown in Greenland and never referred to in public. This convention
focuses on the human person or individual as the central subject of human
rights, stating that women's rights are human rights. In contrast to the
indigenous peoples' rights perspective, it may represent a 'post-cultural'
polity (see Rapport 1998:386).
It may be a commonplace to point out that indigenous women are not
necessarily protected by the acquisition of self-determination and having
their cultural rights recognized (cf. Women's Leadership Institute 1991).
In some respects, the 1995 Indigenous Women's Beijing Declaration seems to
address the potential conflicts between cultural and/or religious rights
and women's rights by demanding, for example: "That indigenous customary
laws and justice systems which are supportive of women victims of violence
be recognized and reinforced. That indigenous laws, customs, and traditions
which are discriminatory to women be eradicated" (IWGIA 1998: 324). At the
same time, however, the Beijing Declaration expresses no doubt as to what
ultimately causes violence against women and other social phenomena:
"Domestic violence and the increasing suicide rates among indigenous women,
especially those who are in highly industrialized countries are caused by
psychological alienation and assimilationist policies characteristic of
these countries" (IWGIA 1998: 320). Violence against women is thus
understood and represented as a symptom of 'foreign' policies, and
consequently externalized.
'Add women and stir' is the usual way to include women in different
frameworks. The 1995 Beijing Declaration of Indigenous Women is a case in
point. However, the risk of marginalization of special women's problems is
ever present. Abused Greenlandic women seem to appeal to a common,
non-culture-bound - or post cultural? - standard when they sometimes cry
out: "I'm also a human being!"
Literature
Bjerregaard, Peter & T. Kue Young
1998The Circumpolar Inuit: Health of a population in transition.
Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
IWGIA
1998The 1995 Beijing Declaration of Indigenous Women. In: D. Vinding
(ed.): Indigenous Women: The Right to a Voice. IWGIA Document No. 88,
Copenhagen.
Lundgren, Eva
1995Feminist Theory and Violent Empiricism. Aldershot, UK: Avebury.
Moore, Henrietta
1994The problem of explaining violence in the social sciences. In: P.
Harvey & P. Gow (eds.): Sex and Violence: Issues in Representation and
Experience. London & New York: Routledge.
Rapport, Nigel
1998The potential of human rights in a post-cultural world. Review
article. Social Anthropology 6(3):381-388.
Sjoerslev, Inger
1998Women, Gender Studies and the International Indigenous Movement.
In: D. Vinding (ed.): Indigenous Women: The Right to a Voice. IWGIA
Document No. 88, Copenhagen.
Soerensen, Bo Wagner
1990 Folk Models of Wife-Beating in Nuuk, Greenland. Folk, Journal of the
Danish Ethnographic Society, Vol. 32:93-115.
1994Magt eller afmagt? Køn, følelser og vold i Grønland (Power or
Powerlessness? Gender, Emotions and Violence in Greenland). Copenhagen:
Akademisk Forlag.
1998Explanations for Wife Beating in Greenland. In: Renate C.A. Klein
(ed.): Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Family Violence. London & New
York: Routledge.
Women's Leadership Institute
1991Women, Violence and Human Rights. Center for Women's Global
Leadership; Douglas College, Rutgers University.
Violations of Human Rights - a matter of interpretation?
Britta Mogensen
Bülowsvej 32 A
1870 Fredriksberg C, Denmark
Tel: + 45 35 37 08 83
Fax: + 45 33 14 45 02
Email:
What is the use of human rights conventions? To whom are they useful? Citizens by birth of a particular member state? Or are certain aliens included, while others are not? And who are the excluded ones?
The story of a Middle Eastern village woman, who I'll call Fatima, and her four children may give you an answer to these questions. Time does not allow for more than one case, although Fatima's is but one of many where battered women led themselves and their children away from violence and abuse to safety and thereby endangered theirs residence permits.
I have followed Fatima's case very closely during the past two and a half years and have had access to all her files: court decisions, police reports, reports from social services department, school, crisis center, medical and psychological records, correspondence with The Immigration Service, the Ministry of Interior and so forth.
Fatima's husband had lived many years in Denmark, when Fatima and their three children finally arrived in Denmark. From day one he beat Fattier and the youngest child up. On one occasion he hit the oldest child so hard that the eardrum was split. He soon made Fattier pregnant with her fourth child.
After months of agony Fatima's sister-in-law was no longer able to watch the plight of Fatima and the children, who were all scared stiff by the father. She helped them to escape the home and brought them to a women's immigration center. They were lodged in a crisis center, where few months later Fatima gave birth to her fourth child.
Fatima's nightmare was, however, not over. The husband took legal action against her in a paternity suit as he did not acknowledge the fatherhood of the newborn child. It goes without saying: she won the suit. However, the court decision meant nothing to the village people whom the husband had already informed about Fatima's immoral life in Denmark and her illegitimate child.
The psychological terror caused by the law suit, where Fatima in public had to tell about the unmentionable: her sex life, was aggravated by The Immigration Service' refusal of prolonging Fatima's residence permit. Leaving her husband within the first three years - which is the time fixed for an alien to obtain residence permit - she had to leave the country. In order to be granted exception to the rule a woman has to substantiate - through medical records - that she leaves her husband due to battering. Not speaking Danish, not knowing the law, not allowed to leave the home if not accompanied by her husband, not knowing one street from the other even in her own neighborhood, Fatima was completely helpless until her sister-in-law came to her aid.