Dominelli (1989) call these families patriarchal nuclear families. Within these patriarchal families there is a sever power imbalance between women , children and men. This power imbalance is shaped by two variables 1) inequality of women + children and men 2) inequality of age. The power imbalance between fathers and daughters is sever when incest is occurring . When fathers rape their daughters they are abusing their power, The child complies with the abuse because her father is the head of the household and a adult authority.
To sum up, if we use the feminist framework through which to view sexual assault, we use the concepts of power, patriarchy and gender. We are then able to explain in a very much more detailed way the high incidence of sexual assault in our society. Sexual assault, rape and child sexual abuse are degrading enactments by men who choose to assert and reinforce their power through violence, of a social system which is filled with the view that men are superior to women.
While the Feminist theory did break the silence around Incest, and is effective in helping to understanding incest, like all theories it also has some limitations. Firstly, the initial Feminist theory (as does Freud’s psychoanalytical theory and dysfunctional family model) only focuses on one type of abuse – Incest. The sexual abuse of girl children by their fathers in the household. Thus, feminist theory ignored the sexual abuse of boys. This theory is limited in that it doesn’t account for the sexual abuse of males. Another downfall is that Father-Daughter Incest only accounts for 1/3 of child sexual abuse. As a result the initial feminist perspective did not account for child sexual abuse that occurs outside the family or in institutions by abusers other than fathers. This is critical since a prevalent study by Diana Russell (1986) found that 62% of abuse occurs outside the home and uncles are the number one abuser.
Secondly, the initial aim of feminism was to educate not to develop a theory on child sexual abuse and as a result feminist have understood incest as abuse of power that was gender specific and age oriented. This understanding does not give a definition of power it just tells us how power is shaped by gender and age. But in order for a concept to be a analytical tools the concept must be defined.
Thirdly, Children’s experiences are not the focal point of feminist analysis (as with dysfunctional family and Freud’s psychoanalytic theory). Thus feminist analysis is not a child centered approach. Women’s experiences have been missed historically and feminist have said that women’s experiences are being tagged on to men’s. Now the feminist analysis of child sexual abuse is missing children’s experiences, they are tagging children’s experiences on to women’s. For example sexual violence against women includes child sexual abuse. The term patriarchy is used to understand child sexual abuse. Patriarchy is defined as male dominance over women , children are invisible in this definition.
Finally, Feminism see the social construction of male sexuality as problematic but the problem is how some male sexuality is socially constructed because not all men are rapists or sexually abuse.
While feminist analysis of sexual abuse does have some limitations we have to acknowledge that it does have many strengths. Feminism has brought us closer to understanding child sexual abuse better than any other theory that I’ve read on the subject. To get an even better understanding we need to take what we know from feminist and broaden it out and develop it into a child centered approach that focuses on the experiences of children not only on the experiences of adult survivors . We also need to compare men who abuse and men who don’t abuse and see what are the differences are. Maybe then we can get an even better understanding of child sexual abuse.
Bibliography
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Dominelli, Lena. 1989. “Betrayal of Trust: A Feminist Analysis of Power Relationships in Incest Abuse and its Relevance for Social Work Practice.” British Journal of Social Work. 19:291-307.
Kelly, Liz. 1988. “What’s in a Name?: Defining Child Sexual Abuse.” Feminist Review. 28:65-73.
Kelly, Liz et al., 1991. An Exploratory Study of the Prevalence of Sexual Abuse in a sample of 16-21 year Olds. London: University of North London.
MacLeod, Mary and Ester Saraga. 1988. “Challenging the Orthodoxy: Towards a Feminist Theory and Practise.” Feminist Review 28:16-55.
O’Hagan , K. 1989. Working With Child Sexual Abuse: A Post- Cleveland Guide Effective Principles and Practice. Milton-Keynes.
Russell, Dianna. 1986. The Secret Trauma.
Sigmund, Freud. 1977. “Some Psychical Consequences of the Anatomical Distinction Between the Sexes” in Sigmund Freud on Sexuality. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Waldby, C. et al. “Theoretical Perspectives on father-daughter incest.” in Child Sexual Abuse (eds) E. Driver and AS. Droisen. London: Macmillan.
Ward, Elizabeth. 1984. Father-Daughter Rape. London: the Women’s Press.