Gender, Power, and Violence

Reviews / Votes

Recommended: Hattery (George Mason Univ.) and Smith (Wake Forest Univ.) provide an accessible introduction to the problem of sexual violence in American culture. Their work focuses particularly on the role that institutions and the environments they construct play in the perpetuation of sexual violence in society, drawing on examples from fraternities, the Roman Catholic Church, and the military. For the authors, the institutions featured are classic totalizing establishments that allow gender-based violence to persist by sustaining sophisticated practices of complicity through time. In addition to their focus on institutional cultures, the authors discuss with equal clarity the interpersonal dimensions and individual responses to sexual violence within which the #MeToo movement has developed. Importantly, the volume concludes by providing practical pathways for addressing sexual violence. The authors suggest that readers focus on institutional responses, reminding them that these have much power to compel behavior and set norms. Institutions can be transformative, the authors argue, when they ensure that there are clear processes that identify sexual violence as transgressive in working and living environments-processes that hold perpetrators accountable. * Choice Reviews * . . .a comprehensive book that interrogates many of the biggest and most influential institutions in America for their role in perpetuating gender-based violence. . . well-written and accessible, [Gender, Power, and Violence] provides solid direction and guidance for how to reduce gender-based violence, institution by institution, and overall in our culture. * Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books * Hattery and Smith's timely book is a searing, incisive look at how and why gender-based violence persists, the institutions that enable it, and the impact that it has on various groups in society. This accessible, powerful book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand this pervasive problem-and more importantly, for anyone who wants to start thinking about solutions. -- Adia Harvey Wingfield, Washington University in St. Louis Too often we choose to engage in complicit silence and numbness in response to the rampant gender-based violence that seeps through our country, particularly through our male-dominated institutions. But this book reminds us that we must do more. Each chapter is a timely rallying point for not only saying #MeToo, but for saying #LetsAct to create a cultural shift where gender-based violence is eliminated once and for all. -- Holly Kearl, Author of Stop Street Harassment: Making Public Places Safe and Welcoming for Women In Gender, Power and Violence, Angela J. Hattery and Earl Smith illuminate the empirical connections between gender-based violence and homosocial organizations-especially those that glorify boys' and men's violence. The book's timely and important message is that ending gender-based violence requires moving beyond sensitivity training and social media campaigns, to serious efforts at institutional transformation. -- Michael A. Messner, Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies, University of Southern California Angela Hattery and Earl Smith's book, Gender, Power, and Violence, is an excellent introductory text for courses on gender based violence. The authors present a comprehensive intersectional analysis how sexual and intimate partner violence is supported by institutional structures-an analysis that is necessary, if we are to truly end the epidemic of violence and the devastating impact of its concomitant trauma. -- Claire N. Kaplan, PhD, Program Director, Gender Violence and Social Change and Men's Leadership Project, University of Virginia This book contributes to the literature on sexual and gender based violence by examining the institutions in which these phenomena occur and the power structures that justify and facilitate this type of violence. The authors attempt to situate violence within the context of power and oppression. This analysis is timely and necessary in order to understand interpersonal violence from a macro perspective. Written in an accessible and engaging manner, this book will be a useful tool for students and laypersons alike who seek to understand the complexities of gender based violence and who wish to prevent future occurrences of violence and harm. -- Karen Holt, assistant professor, School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University This book is a must-read for anyone who is interested in understanding the power dynamic of institutional gender-based violence and the role of institutions in perpetuating sexual violence. For decades, people pointed the finger primarily at Athletes and Frat Guys. "Gender Power and Violence" outlines the role of ALL institutions in perpetuating, permitting and protecting offenders of all types of sexual violence. From the Catholic Church to Congress, from prisons to parliament, from Hollywood to The Hague, from Boy Scouts to band leaders, from the military to media moguls - institutions have played a major role in harboring predators, providing them with a steady stream of prey and in protecting repeat offenders 'for the sake of the institution.' " Fortunately, the #MeToo movement has pulled the curtain back to expose the power dynamics that exist within hierarchical institutions. As a former Division 1 Athlete, I am certainly not pointing the finger at ALL athletes or all actors or all priests or all politicians. However, institutions possess inherent power dynamics that the 10% of bad guys are drawn to. Rape is about power and control - phenomena that exist in all institutions from Penn State to prison to politics. As a result of wanting to maintain that power, institutions put their reputation before individual people - often at the expense of victims. The epidemic of gender-based violence will continue until institutions are willing to admit they have a problem. It is up to Hollywood, Washington, DC and Wall Street to put people before profits and to STAND up for the lowest member of the totem pole at any institution. When institutions are willing to treat the custodian with the same respect as the CEO or hold the Pope just as accountable as his parishioners then - and only then - will we see change. The President should be held to an even higher degree of ethical standards than the peasant.. Like the Homeland Security slogan says, "if you see something, say something" - it is up to us to live by the mantra that "if you see something, DO something" especially when it comes to institutions. Only then will we, as a society, be able to protect victims and help them to truly become survivors. -- Keith Labelle, PhD, Assistant Director of Bystander Intervention Training, University of Rhode Island This is a compelling, accessible, and polemical interrogation of rape culture and gender based violence in U.S. institutions. Rather than simply describing male abuse of power the authors end each chapter with potential strategies and solutions for each institution, ending with a "call to arms" in the final chapter to change institutional practices to change society. -- Jennifer Marchbank, Professor, Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies, Simon Fraser University In an analysis that is both broad and incisive, Gender, Power and Violence provides a fresh vantage point on an epidemic that is anything but new. Zooming out from individual victims and perpetrators to the institutions where gender-based violence is rampant, Hattery and Smith connect the dots, arguing compellingly that these structures have the power to either perpetuate or address a devastating social problem. -- Lauren B. Cattaneo, Associate Professor, George Mason University