A Qualitative Investigation of the Role of Gender in Young Women’s Dating Violence in the United States

The relevance of gender has been a central debate in the intimate partner violence (IPV) literature. The current qualitative study explored the role of gender in shaping the social context, meaning, and reception of young women’s IPV in the United States. A total of 36 undergraduate women were recruited from a larger sample for in-depth interviews. Emergent themes suggest that women’s violence was construed as nonequivalent to men’s violence, including the perceived triviality of women’s violence, contingencies under which women’s violence is deemed acceptable, and the status of male IPV as unacceptable. Gender was important for participants and bystanders in determining whether they interpreted behaviors as meaningful acts of violence.