Preventing Violence Against Women by Targeting The Development of Hostile Masculinity in Boys

My senior Political Science Honors Thesis examines causes and solutions of violence against women (VAW), programs that work at preventing this violence, and how these prevention programs are carried out in k-12 schools in the United States. I argue that locations that have prevention programs that address hegemonic masculinity will have lower rates of VAW. In Chapter 1, I identify the main cause of Violence Against Women (VAW) as being hegemonic masculinity, and the main solution as being prevention programs that take place in k-12 schools. Prevention programs should address root causes of violence, with these being gender roles and gender stereotypes, and a masculinity that promotes domination, aggression, and control. Prevention initiatives need to make spaces that develop alternative masculinities. In Chapter 2, I address the United States’ current levels of programming. First, I survey prevention programs carried out by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), before including state and national policies that address VAW and promote prevention programs in schools. In Chapter 3, I detail the different ways in which these programs are carried out in k-12 schools. This chapter serves as an in-depth look at what these primary prevention programs look like to show the diversity of existing programming. In my final chapter, Chapter 4, I compare the rates of VAW in states and counties that have VAW prevention programming to national rates of VAW, to see if a correlation can be made between the existence of these programs and lower rates of VAW. Understanding how hegemonic masculinity perpetuates VAW is vital in order to work at preventing the development of this masculinity in the first place. Preventing the development of a violent masculinity promotes a safer society for everyone.