In Chapter 41 of Seeing Ourselves by John J. Macionis and Nijole V. Benokraitis, Elaine Leeder discusses how Domestic Violence is a Global Problem and how it reflects structural inequality.

1) Domestic Violence is similar in India, Japan, Vietnam, and Africa in that it is a common occurance. While Vietnam considers men and woman as equals by law, the rest of these locations treat domestic violence (especially toward spouses) as justified. The extent and degree to which it is permitted does differ per society however. In the reading, Leeder notes that rising industrialization and modernization increase likelihood of family violence. Why then is wife battering prevalent in industrialized societies like Japan and the U.S.? In Japan there are no services provided to help address the issue, and it is considered a part of family life in Japanese Society as there are no laws against it at the moment. As far as the United States is concerned, I feel that no matter what class a person is, how much money they make, or even the fact that there are laws against Domestic Violence, that it comes down to the abuser (wife batterer) as feeling that they are in control, while treating their wife as just an object. Once this cycle occurs, the abused wife or child fear for their safety, but are too afraid to report the issue to outside help due to fear of repercussions from the abuser.

2) There are several reasons why most of the women in the above mentioned countries never complain about domestic violence. Starting with India; it’s an everyday occurrence there, and even the women admit justification of it to a degree, referring to it as ok when “not behaved”. In severe cases or abuse that isn’t “justified”, they’ll send an elder to try and take care of the problem. As mentioned before women in Japan are most likely to stay silent about Domestic Violence because it is not considered an issue and there are no laws passed against it or services provided for victims of Domestic Violence. I found it interesting in the reading that many times these victims end up at shelters for prostitutes just to get away from it. In Vietnam, while there are laws that state equality between men and women, I think the old Confucius ideology still contributes to those that stay quiet. The basic idea is that a woman will leave a family behind with nothing, while a son will provide for and take care of a family and its aging elders. This would indicate that favoritism of males over females still occurs as many people still believe in that ideology. Luckily, they have the Vietnamese Woman’s Union that watches out for Women’s Rights. In Africa (Uganda), violence towards women is culture wide and is quoted as legitimate, viewed not as a problem due to the fact that it is “their culture”… At the same time however, if a woman attacks a husband it is criminally wrong. So in Retrospect, women are prisoners to males in that society.

3) When Leeder urged us as readers to suspend ethnocentric value judgments, she wanted us to keep in thought the sociological perspective and an open mind. While this is tough to do since in our Society, (U.S) it is wrongful to harm women and children, we might miss cultural clues as to why it is permitted in other societies, and how one might be able to remedy the issue especially if it is a culturally engrained thing. This does not mean that we turn a blind eye to the problem and say that it is an issue to be dealt with per culture, but instead make use of this information to take educated steps towards helping women and children globally.

BY BRANDON