VIOLENCE IN MARITAL DISPUTES: A MEAN TO CONTROL WOMEN IN URBAN AREAS OF PAKISTAN

Shahla Tabassum, Rukhsana Hasan

Abstract
This study explores the implications of marital disputes on women.
Radical Feminist theory remains the core theoretical lens to see violence as
consequence of disputes to control women in marital relationship. For the
present study, the sample size was selected by using two stage sampling
procedure. The sample size was calculated 400 married women through
systematic random sampling technique but only 318 married women
participated. The tool used was self-structured close ended questionnaire
for cross sectional survey of sampled population. It was found that, 98%
women experience disputes during their marital life indicating marital
conflict an acceptable social occurrence. The results further indicate that
counterargument in disputes may result in violence, both verbal and
physical. Radical feminist believed that challenging men’s authority is
perceived as a threat to their masculinity, thus men resort to violence in
order to maintain their dominance.

Keywords: Women, Marital disputes, Violence, Control.