Violent Femmes: Deconstructing the Naturalization of the Nurturing Mother - Final

Introduction:
In conjuring up images of women, we often think of the sweet, angelic mother, the caring friend, the gentle grandmother. Seldom do we imagine women wielding a bloodthirsty sword or women clad in football gear, fired up to fight. How have our perceptions of women come to be shaped? Is there a biological basis for the ways we conceptualize aggression? Can women naturally be violent? Is violence socially constructed?
We intend to study the intersection of violence and mothers, particularly violence directed toward children. In considering all this we will attempt to discern what societyís definitions of violence are and how women fit into that definition. We will examine peopleís views of physical discipline (defined as an act of violence) and the initiators of discipline, and we will question whether women, particularly those interested in having children, are likely to react violently in certain situations.
In terms of the way society conceptualizes the definition of violence, we expect that subjects of our study will use language to define violence that aligns itself with traditional "male"-oriented aggression. We also intend to investigate how people perceive the degree and severity of particular acts of aggression. We intend to examine whether acts involving direct, intentional and instrumental forms of violence are thought to typically be initiated by males and seen as more severe in comparison to non-direct, less instrumental acts of aggression and whether this latter category of acts is associated with women perpetrators.
In order to examine subjectsí views of physical discipline, we will also look at what percentage of our subjects was physically disciplined by whom, their mothers, their fathers, or both. We expect that mothers will be significantly represented in physical disciplining. We then intend to compare this with who subjects believe to be more likely as well as more justifiable in using physical discipline, men or women. We will also present a scenario designed to determine whether women are as likely, or more likely than men to react violently toward a child in an emergency situation. Concurrently, in this survey, we will examine whether women are more likely to use violence when their offspring is in danger.

Defining Violence and Aggression:
ag-gres-sion (a gresh'an) n: Hostile action or behavior; an unprovoked assault.
vi-o-lence (v´'o lens) n.: Physical force or activity used to cause harm, damage, or abuse.
Through deconstructing our understanding of violence and aggression, we challenge how these terms have come to be defined. These concepts are often interpreted under masculine identity.
Violence is commonly thought to be a direct, physical action with immediate consequences. Though sometimes noted in passing, verbal or emotional abuses are seldom a focal point in discourse regarding violence. Why donít we consider hateful notes in the locker or spreading harmful rumors forms of aggression? In a 1976 Time Life book entitled Violence and Aggression , the extent to which violence is presented as a male behavior can readily be observed. "Aggression in its most virulent form - organized warfare - can evoke both the worst and the best of what it means to be human." War is traditionally engaged in by men only, and the author is therefore assigning aggression to a male identity. Violence evokes thoughts of outwardly directed anger. But under what language could we discuss aggression that is inwardly manifested. Could we consider girls who self-mutilate as engaging in violent behavior if that violence isnít directed outwardly?
By the toys we are handed as children, we are taught from an early age that violence and aggression is male perpetuated. Of the childrenís toys presented in Violence and Aggression, seven of the eight are male figures engaged in aggressive behavior, four of whom are wielding weapons. The only woman portrayed is pinned beneath the guillotine, a victim of violence.
We also tend to cite the source of violence as biological, assuming hormonal factors to predispose males to violent acts. Multiple studies have shown testosterone levels to have a significant effect on aggression, in both men and women. It is necessary to look at the correlation between activity and the production level of testosterone, rather than only looking at the relationship between sex and hormone production.

Motherhood and Acts of Violence:
Disciplining children:
Even as aggression is popularly defined, do women engage in such behaviors? Largely, womenís violence takes place in the home with children and spouses. Results of a 1998 study conducted on parents who use spanking as a form of physical disciplining showed that indeed mothers spanked significantly more often than fathers. A possible biological factor to consider regarding women who participate in this form of violence toward their children is if they discipline them to further their potential success. "When asked to justify their violent activity, [women] refer to their nurturing and caretaking responsibilities and [are] less likely [than men] to claim their ërightí to physically punish a child."

Physical abuse:
One of the most frightening evidences of a motherís violence toward her children is a condition known as Munchausen Syndrome by proxy (MSBP). Doctors are increasingly finding more of these cases. MSBP is a psychiatric condition that involves instrumental aggression, where a woman inflicts injuries on a child to gain attention from family members or doctors, which gives the mother the appearance of a loving, caring parent. But often, "gender bias tends to impede suspicion of abuse when the mother appears so competent and involved in her childís medical care. There are three types of MBPS mothers. The first is the help-seeker, who feels overwhelmed with her child-rearing responsibilities and is looking for help. The second is the doctor addict, who fabricates histories or symptoms, but rarely induces illnesses. The third type is the active inducer, who will create extreme symptoms in her child. MBPS mothers often are calm and calculating when they inflict harm on their children, or they smile when hearing that their child must undergo another round of tests. They also appear disinterested in their children when no one is watching. Most of these mothers have a history of physical or emotional abuse or severe neglect in their childhoods.
MSBP is just one form of the violence that women tend to engage in more than men. A 1991 national study conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported that 24% of child abuse cases were instigated solely by mothers and mother figures, as opposed to the 22% instigated by fathers and father figures. Though the difference is small, the numbers clearly show that women can be as likely to perpetrate physical violence. Also, "contrary to popular belief that male perpetrators are harsher in their abuse than female offenders, there was no difference in the level of severity of abuse among the lone females, lone males, and co-perpetrators." Although many of the cases are a result of the motherís physical disciplining of the child taken too far, there are ways women abuse, ways we rarely acknowledge. One of these includes sexual abuse.

Sexual Abuse:
The National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse defines child sexual abuse as occurring when "a child is used for the sexual gratification of an adult." Many sexual offenses against children by women go unnoticed in our society because women are so closely associated with the care and raising of children, which includes a wide range of touching behaviors. "Women in this society are expected to be nurturant, affectionate, kind, and protective." Children tend not to report sexual abuse that is initiated by a parent that they are dependent on, and some scholars believe this is why so few studies have been devoted to women who sexually abuse.
Researchers have reported that female offenders seem to choose younger victims than males, because female perpetrators need to have a power differential between herself and her victim. Female abusers chose victims who were an average of 3.3 years younger than victims chosen by male abusers. Many sexual abusers are upstanding members of school and church communities. Many survivors said that people often commented on how wonderful their mothers were.

Mothers who kill:
There are a number of theories that have developed in the field of family studies regarding abusive mothers. A study conducted on women who kill children considered a perspective known as self-psychology. When investigating the personal historyís of women who have been convicted of killing children (mostly their own) the study unveiled that 64% of the 42 women experienced a "motherless" childhood, where their motherís were either unavailable or abusive due to mental illness, drug abuse, death, or neglect. 75% of the women said that they had witnessed or experienced serious physical and/or sexual harm during childhood. The researchers suggested that because the mother-child bond had not been formed for these women in their childhoods, they were unable to make that bond with their own children, they were "motherless mothers." Furthermore, because many of the women had been abused physically or emotionally, their self-esteems were so low that they couldnít care for any human life, even their childís. The study felt that many of these women killed their child because in reality, they wanted to kill themselves and saw these children as extensions of themselves. In fact, nearly half of the women in the study claimed to have attempted suicide prior to committing murder.
Though recognizing the self-psychology perspective as valid and appropriate in understanding some womenís motives for killing, it is also important to look at the fact that if 64% of the women experienced motherless childhoods, there were 36% who did not. There were 25% of the women who had not experienced serious physical or sexual abuse in childhood. What factors were influences in these women becoming killers? Biological? Larger social influences like the media?
It is also important to look at the significance studies like this can have on deconstructing our assumptions that motherhood is a natural ability for women, a given. Mothers physically and sexually abuse children, even kill their own children. Only when we face this reality, can we begin to investigate reasons and begin developing solutions, plans of action.

Materials and Methods
Because our study was multi-faceted in nature, we determined it would be best to obtain data by administering four separate surveys. In the first survey, which will herein be referred to as Survey A, we requested subjects to develop their own definition of violence and aggression . The intention of this was to determine whether or not people perceive violence as a direct, instrumental and physical act of aggression, which we have labeled "male"-oriented terms. We categorized the responses into three possibilities. The first category was for definitions that used these maleñoriented terms. The second category was for definitions that involved indirect, non-instrumental (more emotional) acts of aggression. The final category was for definitions that were extremely generic and ambiguous. Also in this survey, we provided eight aggressive or violent acts and asked respondents to rank them according to which they perceived to be the most violent and least violent. We also requested them to note which gender they associated the act with. Thirdly, we asked participants in this survey to indicate which of the given acts they thought were the most justifiable. See Appendix A.
The next survey, Survey B, was designed to determine the propensity of physical discipline by mothers. We asked if the subjects were physically disciplined as children and who was the initiator of any such discipline. We then asked which gender they thought was more likely and more appropriate to physically discipline a child. The purpose of this question was to determine whether our subject pool thought men are more likely to physically discipline, despite the reality of the situation. We also questioned whether or not the subject would physically discipline their child to determine whether women were as likely to do so as men. See Appendix B.
The third and fourth surveys, which will be referred to as Surveys C1 and C2, presented a scenario in which the subject had to decide whether to attempt to solve a problem using violence towards a child or not. We wanted to determine whether women who planned to be parents would act violently towards a child. We also wanted to see if women would take the violent option as much or more than men would. We varied the surveys by suggesting that the life of the subjectís best friend was in danger in Survey C1, and that the life of the subjectís child was in danger in Survey C2. The purpose of this variance was to determine whether women were more likely to take the violent option when their offspringís life was at stake. The proposed violence in the scenario was a direct, instrumental act with the expectation of immediate results. See Appendix C.
We distributed our surveys to Miami students and faculty, and a large number of these students surveyed were Western or Architecture majors. The pool also included students in a Psychology class. The majority of the respondents were 18 to 22 years of age and Caucasian. We had more female respondents than male. We received 36 responses to Survey A, 46 responses to Survey B, 38 responses of Survey C1, and 30 responses to Survey C2.

Results
Survey A:
In analyzing Survey A, we found that 50 % of people surveyed defined violence in male-oriented terms. These were categorized by evaluating definitions that were based on words that described violence as direct, instrumental acts causing physical harm, an act in which power is enforced. For example, one respondent in this category created the following definition, "Violence ñ physically harming another person in order to fulfill your own needs." 11% of those surveyed defined violence in specifically non-male terms. For example, one respondent said that violence was "an act that expresses inner hurt or anger." 39% of the definitions were too vague or ambiguous to categorize into gendered terms. One example of this is the following definition: "When people suck." (Please see Graph A.1)
In asking what acts people found most violent, we discovered that people found killing in war the most violent of the listed acts (30%), followed by a bar fight (25%), self-inflicted injury (19%), punching someone after they punched you (18%), and spanking (5%). Business aggression was considered most violent by 2% of respondents, as was spreading rumors about someone. No one considered self-defense the most violent of the acts. (Please see Graph A.2)
Respondents found business aggression to be the least violent (24%) followed by self-defense and spreading rumors (both 22%). Spanking was also considered least violent (18%), along with self-inflicted injury (9%) and punching someone (5%). No one felt killing in war or bar fights was the least violent. (Please see Graph A.3)
When asked which of these violent acts participants found most justifiable, men felt self-defense was the most justifiable (43%), followed by spanking (21%) and business (21%). War was considered justifiable by 7% of male respondents, as was self-inflicted injury. No male respondents felt rumors, punching, or bar fights to be most justifiable. (Please see Graph A.4)
Women had similar views on what was most justifiable with a few subtle differences. Women also felt self-defense was the most justifiable (43%), followed by spanking (15%). Punching, killing in war, and business were viewed as justifiable by 12% of the respondents. Self-inflicted injury was seen as justifiable by 4%, as was spreading rumors. (Please see Graph A.5)

Survey B:
On Survey B, we found that 35% of respondents were physically disciplined by their mother and 22% by their father. 26% were not disciplined at all, and 17% were disciplined by both their mother and their father. (Please see Graph B.1)
In comparing this reality of which gender physically disciplines children more to who people generally think is more likely to physically discipline a child, we found that 48% of respondents feel a mother is more likely to physically discipline a child, and 24% feel a father is more likely. 13% think both are equally likely to physically discipline, and 15% think neither is likely to do so. (Please see Graph B.3)
We discovered that, of the women surveyed, 50% would not physically discipline their children, 39% would do so, and 17% were unsure. (Please see Graph B.2)

Survey C:
In Survey C, we presented a scenario to determine whether women are as likely as men to take a violent option in an emergency situation. We found that 43% of women would twist the childís arm, compared to 18% of men. (Please see Graph C.2) We are 98.87% sure that the true proportion of men who would twist a childís arm to save either his best friend or his child is less than the true proportion of women who would twist a childís arm in the same situation. (p=.0115)
We also found that of the women surveyed, they were more likely to twist the childís arm when their best friendís life was at stake than when their childís life was at stake. 8 out of 12 women would twist the childís arm for their best friend, whereas only 4 out of16 would hurt the child when their own childís life was at stake. (Please see Graph C.1) We are 98.5% sure that we can reject the null hypothesis and say that the true proportion of women who would twist a childís arm to save their best friend is greater than the true proportion of women who would twist a childís arm to save their own child. (p=.015)
We also asked if the respondents of Survey C wanted to have children. We determined that of the women who planned on having children, only 25% would take the violent option towards the child in the scenario; 75% of women who wanted children would not take the violent option. (Please see Graph C.3)

Discussion:
Survey A:
As expected, a majority of the gendered definitions of violence and aggression were associated with the male gender. This demonstrates how our society continues to define violence in ways that could exclude the female gender from being conceptualized as violent actors. The few respondents who defined violence in alternative terms viewed violence as an expressive act, and an act that was more process oriented than the expectation of a clear result.
It didnít surprise us that the majority of people labeled war and bar fights as top two acts of violence of those listed. This supports the statistic that a majority of respondents defined violence in male-oriented terms because war and bar fights are direct, instrumental acts inflicting physical harm. We also expected that self-defense, spreading rumors, and business would be in the least violent. We were somewhat surprised that spanking was perceived to be less violent. This could indicate that because the victims in this case are children, who arenít seen as being entitled to the same rights as adults. Perhaps evolutionarily, society doesnít have as much concern for violence towards children because they are not fully contributing members of society.
There exists a certain paradox concerning how spanking a child was not seen as violent. As previously noted, the majority of respondents defined violence as an instrumental, direct action involving an exertion of power. That is precisely what physically disciplining a child is. It is taking the option of using force and power to physically control. It therefore surprises us that such an act that aligns itself with the popular definition would be excusable from this.
Self-defense was not surprisingly seen as the most justifiable. What is interesting, though, is that is was also perceived as non-violent. Self-defense could include such violent acts as killing someone, however people didnít seem to make a distinction between what is just and what is violent.
We thought it was interesting that men didnít include spreading rumors as being justifiable acts, but women did. Perhaps this is because this type of aggression is found more in female behavior, and therefore defining it as justifiable is a kind of in-group justification. Also, men considered business aggression to be more justifiable than women. This could be because men traditionally participate in this arena more than women and therefore have more of a need to rationalize it.

Survey B:
Respondents reported that they believed mothers to largely be the more likely gender to physically discipline a child (48%). We compared this to the reality, which is that 35% of mothers actually were the initiators of physical discipline. We expected the opposite; that people would perceive fathers to be more likely to physically discipline, even though the respondents themselves had experience with mothers that physically discipline. Many of our respondents stated that mothers were more likely to physically discipline because they are often associated with having more child-rearing responsibilities.
Because women have a greater parental investment, perhaps they have a greater need to alter and mold the behavior of their offspring to help them succeed. Men, having a much lower parental investment, may not have such a strong need to discipline the child for such purposes.
Something problematic within our survey is that we failed to ask the nature and severity of the physical discipline and the parentís rationale in doing so. For example, our background research exposed that there are variations in the reason behind using physical disciplining, that women tend to cite their obligation to raising responsible adults whereas men tend to cite their need to establish their authoritative position in the parent-child relationship.
In finding that 39% of women surveyed and 17% are unsure about whether they would physically discipline a child, we can conclude that physical disciplining as a violent cultural practice will continue.

Survey C:
Our hypothesis is supported in the finding that women are more likely than men to take the violent course of action in the emergency situation. This is very surprising that surveyed men are so much less aggressive than women. We believe that women are more socialized than men to be relationship-oriented, wherein their identity is defined and validated by their social interactions. Therefore, in the given scenario, a person close to the respondent was in a life-threatening situation. Perhaps women had more to gain in taking the violent option than men.
Our hypothesis was challenged in our findings that women were more likely to take the violent action to save their friend than to save their child. In terms of evolutionary psychology, it would seem that women would go to greater and more extreme lengths to preserve the life of their offspring than their friend. We primarily interviewed college women, and it is possible that because most Miami college-aged women have no experience of being a parent, they have a stronger attachment to friends.

General Discussion and Suggestions for Further Research:

Firstly, we believe that we tried to take on too much. We tried to examine physical discipline, societal perceptions of violence, and violent responses to emergency situations. Though it is good that we incorporated multiple disciplines into our research and hypothesis (i.e. psychology, sociology, family studies, evolutionary psychology, linguistics), it became challenging to focus in implementing an analysis of our data. With four different surveys there was just too much information to deeply examine each variable. We also feel that we could have combined information on one or two surveys and increased our survey population. Together, we surveyed 150 people. If we had given one survey to all of these people, we would have had a much larger sample and would have been able to correlate between individualís responses.
We requested more information on our surveys than we actually used in synthesizing our data simply because we wanted to make sure we had the information for any correlations we needed to make. Various questions were not used, such as age, sexual orientation, major/occupation, number of children desired, and race. There are many axes on which violence occurs, and even though we chose to look specifically at violence on a gendered axis, it is impossible in reality to disentangle the variable of gender from other variables such as race, socio-economic class and religion.
Our sample size per survey ideally would have been larger to get more accurate results. Our population was fairly homogeneous, which eliminated certain variables from being determining factors. This is necessary in a study on violence, because it is such a multi-faceted and complex issue. Most of our respondents were college-aged, middle to upper class, white, and in similar majors. Although these surveys were meant to be anonymous, there is a possibility that respondents might have answered falsely to protect themselves, given the nature of our small community and the fact that answering truthfully might have involved some identifying characteristics.
Should this type of study be administered again, there should only be one or two surveys and a larger sample size. The study should have a more specific focus; therefore more in depth research could be done and the findings would have more significance. In administering a scenario survey, it would be interesting to alter the situation to determine if the reason women were more likely than men to choose the violent option was to preserve a social relationship. Further research might include effects of physical discipline on children, and investigating inter-generational transmission of violence. Also, attention should be given to the multi-faceted reasons why parents physically discipline.

References
1. Bender, David; Leone, Bruno, Ed. Violence: Opposing Viewpoints. Greenhaven Press, Inc, San Diego. 1996

2. Crimmins, Susan; Langley, Sandra; Brownstein, Henry H.; Spunt, Barry J. "Convicted Women Who have Killed Children: a Self-Psychology Perspective" Journal of Interpersonal Violence, vol. 12 no 1, (February 1997): 49-69.

3. Day, Randal D.; Peterson, Gary W.; McCracken, Coleen. "Predicting Spanking of Younder and Older Children by Mothers and Fathers" Journal of Marriage and the Family. Vol. 60 (February 1998): 79-84.

4. Hotaling, Gerald T., David Finkelhor, John T. Kirkpatrick, Murray A. Straus, ed.
Family Abuse and its Consequences: New Directions in Research. Sage Publications,
Newbury Park. 1988.

5. Mitchell, Juliann, Ph.D. and Jill Morse. From Victims to Survivors: Reclaimed Voices of Women Sexually Abused in Childhood by Females. Accelerated Development Press, Bristol, PA, 1998.

6. Pearson, Patricia. When She Was Bad. Viking Penguin, New York. 1997

7. Ruback, R. Barry and Neil Alan Weiner, ed. Interpersonal Violent Behaviors: Social and Cultural Aspects. Springer Publishing Company, New York. 1995.

8. Also, great thanks to Aaron Kaffen for his wonderful assistance in helping us to calculate statistics!!!

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