Violence and Responsibility: Collating Women’s Testimony and Social Norms

Abstract

Violence against women is caused by and contributes to systemic misogyny. Part of this oppression involves enforced behavior and the imposition of responsibility on women for acts of abuse. Radical change to this social reality cannot occur without prioritizing the voices of women in ways that refuse to replicate power hierarchies or reinstate dominant beliefs. This dissertation is composed of three papers that analyze women’s testimony about violence using transdisciplinary approaches, and prioritize tangible implications and recommendations. Relying on different conceptualizations of women’s ‘responsibility’ as a framework, this collection argues for the inclusion of women’s voices in institutional responses to violence, restorative justice processes, and guidelines for navigating narratives as a survivor. Each examination utilizes feminist theory to better understand women’s lived experiences. These papers collectively show the need for a structural understanding of violence against women that raises the issue beyond the individual, and is always inclusive of critiques of power and the nuance of intersectional privilege and oppression.