The heavy burden of a silent scourge: domestic violence.

against Women defines such violence as " any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivations of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life. " Acts of violence by husbands against their wives, or, more generally, by males against their female partners, are commonly known as domestic violence, and they fit this definition on all counts: Such acts are gender based, and they cause harm and suffering to women. Equally importantly, however, the harm caused by domestic violence is not restricted to the recipient alone: Research has clearly shown that such violence has far-reaching intergenerational consequences. When I say that domestic violence is gender based, I am not referring to the fact that domestic violence is generally committed by persons of one sex against those of the other. Instead, I am referring to the gendered underpinnings of such violence. Gender is the socially constructed dimension of biologically determined sex. As such, gender encompasses the different roles, rights, and obligations ascribed by culture and society to women and men because of their sex. These ascribed roles, rights, and obligations are not just different, they also tend to be unequal: Men have more power than women do, and in some relationships, such as marriage, men may also have socially, culturally, or even legally sanctioned power over women. That domestic violence is symptomatic of this gender-based power of men over women is evident from the extent to which women and men are socialized into accepting such power almost without question. For example, the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) data available for most countries show that when women are asked if a husband is justified in beating his wife under various circumstances, such as neglecting the children, not cooking well, talking to other men, or refusing to have sex with the husband, a significant proportion agree with one or more of these " reasons. " What is even more telling is that, even in countries where such agreement is low, the one " reason " that women (and also men, if they are asked this question) are most likely to agree with is if the wife " neglects the children. " Perhaps this is because the care of children is culturally perceived as the most binding of all gender …