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Gender and violence - historical and cultural perspectives
From the mid 1970ths there has been a disagreement as to how men’s violence against women should be understood, explained and handled in society. In this project I study the antagonistic conceptions of men’s violence against women that have been expressed by different actors in Sweden from 1975 to 2000 in terms of challenge and resistance.
Doctoral student
Gabriella Nilsson, Division of Ethnology
Dissertation year: 2009
Subjects: Ethnology
Department: Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences
External funding
Project description
In my thesis I study the struggle for primacy of interpretation in the perception of rape, incest and physical assult which has been present from the mid-1970s until today. It is a study of lawyers, child psychologists, children's ombudsmen, agency directors, feminists, researchers, judges, incest victims, journalists, criminologists, shelter women, physicians, ministers, scientists, policemen, professors, psychiatrists, members of parliament, social psychologists, sociologists, officers, investigators, witness psychologists and prosecutors. And about their disagreement as to how mens violence against women should be understood.
The title of the thesis - Gender power or witch hunt? - alludes to the often antagonistic relationship between those who regard violence as an expression of male power over women and those who believe that the gender policy interest in the issue contributes to a non-constructive blaming and a witch-hunt on innocent men.
What explanation gets the primacy of interpretation is of great importance fot the way in which society handles the problem in legislation and in various professional practices.
Cover. Gender Power of Witch Hunt?
Content manager: Gabriella Nilsson
Page content last modified 16 Apr 2010
Last modified 12 Feb 2010
Gender and violence - historical and cultural perspectives
Phone +46 (0)46 222 39 66
Postal Address
Division of Ethnology
Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences
Box 117, 221 00 LUND
Internal Post Code 59
