HEGEMONIC MASCULINITY, DOMINATION, AND VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

In t roduct ion There are many theories to explain the existence and the extent of the problem of men’s violence against women. Some theories focus on the individuals and look for personal explanations such as the use of alcohol or drugs, the victim’s actions, mental illness, stress, frustration, underdevelopment, and violent families of origin. Men’s violence can also be studied from a sociological point of view. According to this approach violence against women is endemic to the social condition of women and men, across time and culture (Websdale & Chesney-Lind, 1998 p 55). Hearn (1998 p 29) warns that there are great dangers in separating violence off from the rest of social relations between men and women, since this separation can be a major way in which men reproduce violence as definers and constructors of violence. Likewise, Dobash and Dobash (1983 p 14) argue that investigations that attempt to abstract physical violence out of its social settings and focus primarily on the backgrounds or personal characteristics o