5.1 Chapter Introduction
Chapter Overview: Locating Gendered Power
Power in patriarchal societies has traditionally been secured by the violent enforcement of binary gender roles and gender inequality. This violence occurs at multiple levels, including structural, cultural, and interpersonally. Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), coercive control of a spouse or romantic partner, is a common way to secure power in intimate relationships within patriarchal societies. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has identified traditional gender norms and gender inequality, and the social acceptance of interpersonal aggression as societal risk factors for IPV, and states that “Sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence are major public health problems in the United States” (Reamer 2023).
Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) has at different times been referred to as wife battering, domestic violence, and spousal abuse, but since people of all genders and sexualities in a variety of intimate relationships experience IPV, the more inclusive and expansive term, “Intimate Partner Violence,” is being widely adopted. However, there is some concern that this language obscures the connection between gender and violence (Bonnet & Whittaker 2015). The Wheel of Power and Control (figure 5.1) describes many of the forms of violence that perpetrators of IPV use to control their intimate partners.
Violence is one way that power is created and maintained in unequal systems of power. As the Wheel of Power and Control demonstrates, violence can take many forms in multiple domains. In this chapter, The Wheel of Power and Control is adapted in two different ways to help us understand that gender and other categories of identity are intersectional constructions of power that operate in multiple domains to create and maintain unequal systems of power. We will also consider some specific ways people are marginalized or privileged within those systems. Building on the discussion of patriarchy that we began in Chapter One, this chapter will also introduce four complex systems of power, heteropatriarchy, capitalism, white supremacy, and settler colonialism, that are sustained by gender inequality and explore how resistance to these systems can shift power towards the possibility of more equitable and expansive genders and sexualities.
LEARN MORE: Intimate Partner Violence
Intimate partner violence (IPV) can be a challenging topic, especially for people who have experienced it. If you have experienced IPV, please take time to create safety for yourself as you work through this material. For more research about intimate partner violence, you can explore the National Domestic Violence Hotline [Website].
Key Terms
This section contains a list of foundational key terms from the chapter. After reviewing them here, be on the lookout for them as you work through the rest of the book.
- capitalism: a complex competitive economic system of power in which limited resources are subject