Forsaken Females

The Global Brutalization of Women

By (author) Andrea Parrot, Nina Cummings

Publication date:

08 June 2006

Length of book:

270 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Dimensions:

240x160mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780742545786

Women around the world routinely suffer from beatings, rape, torture and murder. These are not the practices of a few demented individuals, but are often institutionalized, culturally-sanctioned behaviors. Millions of women live in a constant state of isolation, terror and fear; for most, escape is nearly impossible due to economic, social, or cultural restrictions. Forsaken Females describes the many types of global brutalization that occur against women: including feticide, infanticide, female genital mutilation, sexual slavery, honor killing, acid attacks, trafficking, dowry death, rape, and intimate partner violence. The violence is varied in both method and practice and is often supported by patriarchal ideologies or policies that maintain the social conditions and cultural framework that accept women’s brutalization.

Forsaken Females also addresses the physical, emotional and economic impact of the violence. The discussion is structured around the experiences of women who describe their personal victimization. Each chapter concludes with examples of promising policies and practices developed to address and reduce violence perpetrated against women.
Violence against women is recognized as a public health problem; however, this area of research has produced results that are difficult to integrate either conceptually or empirically.Forsaken Females: The Global Brutalization of Women certainly makes a worthwhile contribution to the current understanding of the subject. [The book] presents the topic in a very powerful way, while maintaining rigorous academic standards.