Individualist framing has not reduced violence against women in Western countries

Evidence

But in their emphasis on women fleeing their communities, and diminished attention to lives lived in community, there is an implicit endorsement of the notion that a woman is someone who lives outside race and community. The idea of the individual living free of the ties of community and family, and with ties only to the state, is one that has not resulted in less violence against women. Indeed, Norway itself reported to the UN Commission on Equality that 5 per cent of Norwegian women were raped by someone other than a partner, while 10 per cent reported being raped by a partner. If we consider spousal homicide, for instance, in a country such as Canada, we see that for the year 2001, sixty-seven women were killed by their partners or ex-partners and seventeen of these women were killed after they tried to leave their abusive partners. We do not, in these instances, refer to culture as the root cause of the problem, although the violence is directed at women who refuse to stay in their marriages and relationships on account of violence. — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 331

Categorization

• QUESTION: The claim that framing women as individuals free of community ties ‘has not resulted in less violence’ is asserted but only supported by Norway rape stats and Canadian spousal homicide numbers. Worth checking whether these figures actually track the individualist framing’s effect or are merely baseline national data.
• XREF: Connects to the general pattern in this book and to ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ — Western discourses that position minority women as needing rescue from their communities while ignoring parallel violence in the majority population.