Unifying Theory and Research on Intimate Partner Violence: A Feminist Perspective

Abstract

This paper shows how theorizing gender as a social system and a situational accomplishment provides a broad perspective that helps to synthesize many strands of theoretical and empirical research on IPV. We first address generalist claims that gendered explanations of IPV are not necessary. We next present a unifying feminist theoretical framework to explain IPV experiences and discuss how this framework can be extended to consider how gender and race systems intersect to influence IPV. We call for future theoretical development and empirical research that takes seriously a variety of intersecting systems and dimensions of oppression.