Citation

Banerjee A. J. Specul. Philos. 2008; 22(1): 3-11.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Penn State University Press)

DOI

10.1353/jsp.0.0021

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Violence against women has taken various forms—physical, psychological, sexual, and economic. One of the most prevalent forms of gender-based violence but one that often remains invisible is the abuse suffered by women from intimate male partners, especially within patriarchal structures of the family and institutions like marriage throughout the world. Because of the magnitude of the problem of violence against women, it comes as no surprise that feminist theorists have been very concerned with theorizing violence, that is, trying to provide theories for understanding these situations and ways of overcoming them. In fact, the very possibility of envisioning a new kind of social order seems to rest on trying to conceptualize the word power in a new way that would free it from its association with "violence" or "coercion" and emphasize its creative potential.