Cultural-Specific Gender Ideology and Wife Abuse in Mexican-Descent Families1
| Date | 01 January 2000 |
| Published date | 01 January 2000 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026975800000700305 |
| Author | Merry Morash,Hoan N. Bui,Anna M. Santiago |
Domestic
Violence:
Global Responses,
pp.
67-91
©
2000
A B
Academic
Publishers
Printed
in
Great
Britain
CULTURAL-SPECIFIC
GENDER
IDEOLOGY
AND
WIFE
ABUSE
IN
MEXICAN-DESCENT
FAMILIES
1
MERRY
MORASH*,
ROANN.
BUI*
and
ANNA
M.
SANTIAGO
t
*
School
of Criminal Justice, Baker
Hall,
Michigan
State
University,
E.
Lansing,
MI
48824,
USA
t
School
of
Social
Work,
Wayne
State
University,
219
Thompson
Street,
Detroit,
MI
48262,
USA
ABSTRACT
The
present
study,
which
was
designed
to
improve understanding of
the
context, patterns,
and
meanings
of violence
against
wives,
uses
a standpoint-based
approach
which
incorporates a
symbolic
interactionist
method
and
a
feminist
perspective
to
examine
wife
abuse
in
Mexican-de-
scent
families.
Findings
from
the
study
indicate
that
wife
abuse
occurs
in
the
complex context of
economic
hardship,
changes
in
gender
role
expectations
and
performances,
and
husbands' attempt
to
maintain
male
dominance
and
control
of
the
family.
The
control aspect of
wife
abuse
was
reflected
in
the
patterns
of violence
used
by
husbands,
the
unequal
power relationship between
husbands
and
wives,
and
the
differences
between
wives'
and
husbands' reactions
to
family
conflicts.
These
findings
suggest
that
efforts
to
stop
wife
abuse
need
to
focus
not
only
on
increasing women's
economic
independence
but
also
on
eliminating culture-specific ideologies of
male
supremacy.
Although wife abuse has received increasing attention
in
social science research
during the last two decades, there has been just limited study of the unique
situations and experiences
of
women in ethnic minority groups.
It
is
widely
recognized that wife abuse occurs within the context of gender inequality (e.g.,
see Dobash and Dobash, 1979; Kurz, 1993; Yllo, 1993), but it is also important
to consider how immigrant status, ethnicity, and culture shape the context
of
violence (Crowell and Burgess, 1996; also see American Psychological Associ-
ation, 1996). Group differences
in
the dynamics
of
abuse must
be
understood and
incorporated into the body
of
knowledge about violence against women in order
to design culture-sensitive intervention strategies (Crowell and Burgess, 1996).
The present study takes a step in addressing the need for research pertaining to
wife abuse among persons
of
Mexican-origin, a large and the fastest growing
ethnic minority group in the U.S.
68
ALTERNATIVE
FRAMEWORK
AND
APPROACH
FOR
UNDERSTANDING
WIFE
ABUSE
Theoretical Framework
One
strain of research
on
domestic
violence
has
identified
male
dominance
as
a
key
element
in
wife
abuse
(Bograd,
1988;
Dobash
and
Dobash,
1979;
Schechter,
1982,
1988).
Wife
abuse
is
viewed
as
a
result
of
the
subordination
of
women
to
men
and
the
subjection of
women
to
male
authority
and
control
in
patriarchal
societies.
According
to
Dobash
and
Dobash
(1979),
the
patriarchy contains
both
structural
and
ideological
aspects
conducive
to
domestic
violence.
The
structural
aspect consists of a hierarchical
organization
of
social
institutions
and
social
relations regarding
power
and
privileges
which
place
women
in
an
inferior
status.
The
ideological aspect reinforces
acceptance
of
this
hierarchy
and
rationalization
of
inequality.
Men
use
violence
to
express
their
socially
constructed rights
to
chastise their
wives,
deprive
women
of their
dignity,
and
reinforce women's
passivity
and
dependence
(Bograd,
1988;
Schechter,
1982,
1988).
Studies of
domestic
violence
have
provided
empirical
evidence
of
the
relation-
ship
between
male
dominance
and
wife
abuse
(Dobash
and
Dobash,
1979;
Levinson,
1989;
M.
Smith,
1990;
Yllo,
1983,
1984;
Yllo
and
Straus,
1994).
Yllo
(1983)
found
that
in
the
U.S.,
the
least egalitarian
states
had
the
highest rate of
violence against
wives.
Violence
against
wives
was
also
severe
in
families
living
in
states
where
the general
status
of
women
was
high,
but
in
which
the
husbands
still dominated
within
the
home
(Yllo,
1984).
Studies
also
found
a
strong
linear
relationship between patriarchal
beliefs
and
norms
and
wife
beating
(M.
Smith,
1990;
Yllo
and
Straus,
1984).
Wife
beating
was
more
common
in
the
social
context
in
which
support
for
patriarchal
norms
remained
high
(Yllo
and
Straus,
1984
),
and
husbands
who
adhered
to
the
ideology
of
familial
patriarchy
were
more
likely
to
beat their
wives
than
those
who
did
not
(M.
Smith,
1990).
Despite
fmdings
that violence
against
wives
is
an
integral part of
male
dominance,
the
use
of the general
concept
of patriarchy
or
male
dominance
to
explain
wife
abuse
is
problematic.
The
concept
of
patriarchy
assumes
a universal,
trans-historical,
and
trans-cultural
phenomenon
(Acker,
1989);
it
fails
to
recog-
nize differences
in
the
various
forms
of
gender
inequality
in
different societies,
the
diversity of women's experiences
because
of
women's
different social
loca-
tions,
and
the
variation
in
the
construction of
gender
relations
among
different
ethnic
groups
within
a particular
society
(Walby,
1989;
Messerschmidt,
1993).
Several researchers have concluded
that
men's
income
and
occupation
status,
which
is
associated
with
race,
contributes
to
wife
abuse
(Cazenave
and
Straus,
1979;
Lockhart,
1987;
Lockhart
and
White,
1989).
Specifically,
Gelles
(1993;
also
see
Rasche,
1988)
has
suggested
that
African-American
men,
compared
to
white
men,
use
more
violence against
their
wives
because
they
are
subject
to
different types
of
stress, discrimination, and frustration.
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