Epistemology and violence. An overview of the problem of gender violence

Abstract

Johan Galtung’s 1996 triangular model of violence is applied to the case of gender violence in order to discuss the interactions among the three types of violence (direct, structural and cultural) that are established by the model. Feminist epistemologies give an appropriate framework to analyse the assumptions which build a gender-biased view of the world. This paper takes feminist epistemologies as a point of departure to criticize the invisibility of some facts, namely gender violence and women’s cultural and historical heritage. The paper also argues that the way of thinking on gender identity is a clue to cultural gender violence, particularly symbolic violence. Some concepts elaborated by Chantal Mouffe could help to open more fruitful approaches.

Keywords

• epistemologías feministas
• violencia contra las mujeres
• violencia directa
• violencia estructural
• violencia cultural