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Article
Gendering Coercive Control
Violence Against Women (2009)
  • Kristin L. Anderson, Western Washington University
Abstract
This article examines the theory of gender presented in Stark’s Coercive Control: How Men Entrap Women in Personal Life. Stark suggests that gender is a form of structural inequality that makes women more vulnerable than men to the strategies of coercive control. However, Stark assumes rather than demonstrates that gendered structural inequality increases women’s vulnerability. In this article, the author applies the multilevel theory of gender as identity, interaction, and social structure to document the multiple ways coercive control is gendered. The author argues that, to understand the gender dynamics of coercive control, researchers must examine the interactions across levels of gender. The author concludes with an assessment of the prospects and pitfalls of applying the concept of coercive control to renew the feminist social movement to end domestic violence.
Keywords
  • Domestic violence,
  • Feminist theory,
  • Gender,
  • Violence against women
Publication Date
2009
Publisher Statement
Sage Publications, Inc. doi: 10.1177/1077801209346837
Citation Information
Kristin L. Anderson. "Gendering Coercive Control" Violence Against Women Vol. 15 Iss. 12 (2009)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/kristin_anderson/7/