Women and Violence

Chapter 4 of this book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license via link.springer.com.



This edited collection explores the agency of women who do violence and have violence done to them. Topics covered include rape, pornography, prostitution, suicide bombing and domestic violence. The volume contributes to the philosophical and theoretical debate, as well as offering practical, social and political responses to the issues examined.

"This exciting volume explores the many facets of women and violence. The authors address a range of important topics including rape, prostitution, self-harm, pornography, suicide bombing, and birth, and theorise them using a range of philosophical concepts. Issues of agency, consent, coercion, victimhood and autonomy recur throughout the book, such that the reader gains a rich insight not only into various types of gendered violence but also into the concepts that are needed to understand them philosophically. This collection is essential reading for students and researchers interested in all aspects of feminism in particular, and political philosophy in general." - Clare Chambers, University of Cambridge, UK

"This is a very stimulating collection of essays, written with admirable clarity and confidence by leading thinkers in this field. The essays cover diverse perspectives, drawing from philosophy, politics, sociology, law, and international relations. The volume is at the forefront of current thinking about women and violence, both theoretically and politically. On the theoretical side, the essays make important interventions into debates about the nature of violence, victimhood and vulnerability, agency and autonomy. On the political side, the essays address issues of urgent practical concern: pornography, prostitution, rape, domestic violence, and suicide bombing. The volume will be essential reading for academics and students looking at the intersections of violence, gender, and agency." - Alison Stone, Lancaster University, UK

"This fascinating and timely collection deals with the notion of violence from a feminist perspective. It contains nuanced discussions of topics such as legal and moral conceptions of rape, the notion of pornography as gendered violence, the question of the agency and autonomy of women who perpetrate violence, and the relation between victimhood and oppression. The collection will launch an important and fruitful philosophical conversation about the gendered nature of violence: do conventional definitions of violence assume norms that are oppressive to women? Is the nature of violence inimical to 'womanness' itself? It is essential reading for social theorists interested in both the relation between violence and gender oppression and the impact of violence on agency, autonomy and victimhood." - Natalie Stoljar, McGill University, Canada

"This is an extraordinarily rich and wide-ranging collection. The authors are diverse on dimensions including gender, geography, and discipline; some are established figures, some are new voices. The central themes of violence and agency are construed broadly, gender is treated as symbol, norm, and practice, and the case studies include rape, pornography, prostitution, suicide bombing, and domestic violence. What holds it all together is a shared commitment to conceptualizing agency in terms unconstrained by ideological binaries. Instead, all the essays seek to develop understandings of agency that are nuanced and empirically responsive, well-honed conceptual tools enabling us to address the many forms of violence perpetrated on and by women." - Alison M. Jaggar, University of Colorado Boulder, USA

Elena Alonzo, University of Genoa, Italy Alison Assiter, University of the West of England, UK Bob Brecher, University of Brighton, UK Amanda Cawston, University of Cambridge, UK Jules Holroyd, University of Nottingham, UK Rhéa Jean, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg Iain Law, University of Birmingham, UK Herjeet Marway, University of Birmingham, UK Hanna Pickard, University of Birmingham, UK Jacqui Poltera, University of Tasmania, Australia Paul Reynolds, Edge Hill University, UK Robin May Schott, Danish Institute for International Studies, Denmark Sarah Sorial, University of Wollongong, Australia Heather Widdows, University of Birmingham, UK Gillian Youngs, University of Brighton, UK