Gender violence in couple: A theoretical review

Abstract

The present text discusses different theoretical perspectives that explain gender violence in couples. It proposes that the ecological model and the gender perspective are two important and complementary theories that help research about this phenomena. Through the ecological model, maltreatment is understood as a product of the interaction of multiple factors related to the individual history of the victim and the male batterer’s personal history, the macrosystem (myths of violence and chauvinist culture), the exosystem (stress, institutional treatment, social network) and microsystem (marital conflicts). The gender perspective helps to understand how society is built on gender as it permeates the systems of ecological model, for an example, the gender socialization at an individual level and the cultural values at macrosystem level. It highlights that the combination of the ecological model and gender perspective offers a better understanding about gender violence in couples.