Patriarchy and Abuse: No Direct Link

In our first issue (CBMWNEWS Vol. 1, No. 1 [August 1995], p. 3) we reported that CBMW issued an expanded statement on the abuse of women. In a related piece, we noted that the group Christians for Biblical Equality declined to join CBMW in issuing this statement. The apparent reason for this was CBE's refusal to acknowledge the possibility of loving headship in marriage. The notion persists that a complementarian view of biblical manhood and womanhood in and of itself promotes the abuse of wives. Now there is some documented evidence to the contrary.

The following is excerpted from New Research, a monthly supplement to The Family in America, published by The Rockford Institute, in the November 1995 issue; reprinted with permission.

Wife abuse, many feminist theorists believe, is fostered by a patriarchal culture. Indeed, some feminists assert that patriarchy is the major cause of wife abuse [see most recently Catherine Clark Kroeger and James Beck, ed., Women, Abuse and the Bible (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996)-ed.]. But after carefully analyzing numerous studies of violence among married and cohabiting couples, psychologist Donald G. Dutton ["Patriarchy and Wife Assault: The Ecological Fallacy,'' in Violence and Victims Vol. 9, No. 2 (1994): 167-82] has concluded that "no direct relationship exists between patriarchy and wife assault'' and that, therefore, feminists will have to find another explanation of wife abuse. [Emphasis ours].

In the first place, Dutton notes, "if feminist analysis is correct, we should expect greater violence directed toward women in more patriarchal cultures.'' Yet it turns out that the rate of wife assault among Mexican-born Hispanic couples runs "about half the rate'' found among non-Hispanic whites, "despite Hispanic cultures being generally more patriarchal than American culture.''

Furthermore, researchers in this country have docu- mented some of "the highest rates of severe wife assault'' in "states where the status of women is highest.'' Likewise dif- ficult to explain within feminist theory is recent research which has found that "couples where only the female was violent were significantly more common (39.4 percent of dating couples, 26.9 percent of cohabiting couples, 28.6 percent of married couples) than couples where only the male was violent (10.5 percent of dating couples, 20.7 of cohabiting couples, 23.2 of married couples).'' It thus appears that "female violence may be serious and may not be in response to male violence.''

But it is in explaining the extraordinarily high incidence of violence among lesbian couples that patriarchy-as-theroot- of-violence theories fail most completely. In a 1991 survey of almost 1,100 lesbians, researchers found that "52 percent [said they] had been a victim of violence by their female partner, 52 percent said they had used violence against their female partners, and 30 percent said they had used violence against a nonviolent female partner.'' Such figures suggest a level of violence in lesbian relationships significantly higher than that found among heterosexual couples. Indeed, when 350 lesbians (three-quarters of whom had been in "a prior relationship with a man'') participated in a second 1991 survey on violence within relationships, they reported that "rates of verbal, physical, and sexual abuse were all significantly higher in their prior lesbian relationships than in their prior heterosexual relationships: 56.8 percent had been sexually victimized by a female, 45 percent had experienced physical aggression, and 64.5 percent experienced physical/emotional aggression.'' Dutton finds such data "difficult to accommodate from a feminist perspective.''

No doubt "biblical feminists'' will continue to insinuate a link between a non-egalitarian view of gender roles and wife abuse. But studies like the one cited above now suggest that they do so regardless of the evidence.