A discursive model of gendered social control: The case of battered women

Abstract

A model of gendered social control is presented based on the concept of logic statements which undergird the two overarching discourses surrounding the social problem of domestic violence: a social service discourse and a feminist discourse. Two arguments are made. First, there will be a coherence between discourse and the program agendas offered at domestic violence shelters, a coherence between discourse or program agenda and organizational variables, and a coherence between discourse or program agenda and funding sources. The most robust empirical finding supported the coherence between a social service discourse and a program agenda based on the logic statements associated with masculinism, liberal individualism and medicalization. The second argument posits functional relationships among discourse, program agenda, the organizational variables and the funding variables. Social service programs were predicted by social service discourse and by federal monies and feminist programs were predicted by the number of women sheltered; social service discourse was predicted by social service programs and feminist discourse was predicted by the number of women sheltered. These findings suggest that some program agendas put in place by domestic violence shelters may actually contribute to masculinism as a cultural practice.