Teaching Gender Through Violence: Gender-Based Violence in Introductory Sociology Textbooks

• In Event: 21006 - Teaching Sociology

Abstract

Colleges are agents of gender socialization that can reinforce or reject gender norms. This is particularly important because college textbooks and other instructional tools can have profound impacts on how students come to understand gender, in particular gender-based violence. This study aims to analyze introductory sociology textbooks to better understand the stories that they tell about gender-based violence. Preliminary results suggest that gender-based violence is often described with passive language, minimizing the perpetrators and placing the burden of victimization primarily on cisgender women. Men from the Global South are notable exceptions to this–they are often explicitly mentioned as perpetrators of gender-based violence. Our study will have significant implications for understanding what students learn about who can be the victims and who can be the perpetrators of gender-based violence.

Authors

• Srushti Upadhyay, Purdue University

• Logan Phlox Williams, University at Buffalo

• Erin E. Hatton, University at Buffalo