Sexual Assault in the Lives of Ethnic Minority Women

Our current featured article is by the prolific social-justice team from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee – Ashley Ruiz, BSN, RN; Jeneile Luebke, PhD, RN; Maren Hawkins, BA; Kathryn Klein, BA; Lucy Mkandawire-Valhmu, PhD, RN. This current article is titled “A Historical Analysis of the Impact of Hegemonic Masculinities on Sexual Assault in the Lives of Ethnic Minority Women Informing Nursing Interventions and Health Policy.” The article is available for download at no cost while it is featured. Below is a message from primary author Ashley Ruiz about this work:

In this article, we urge readers to consider how hegemonic masculinities are created, upheld, and sustained, due to intersecting systems of oppressions (the totality of which are also referred to as the matrix of domination).  A dominant ideology that refers to how masculine traits are constructed and idealized, hegemonic masculinities are learned social practices that ultimately lead to justifying the acceptability of violence, such as sexual assault.  In this article, we identify four ways in which hegemonic masculinities are used to justify sexual assault, specifically in the lives of ethnic minority women (social order hierarchies, “othering” dynamics, negative media/mass communication depiction, and economic labor division).  We draw from the literature to demonstrate specific ways in which sexual assault in the lives of ethnic minority women in the States are historically situated specifically in relation to colonization and slavery.  This history, upheld by hegemonic masculinities, demonstrates the past and present justification of sexual assault in ethnic minority women’s lives.  We call for nurses to recognize and understand this history as a basis for their approach to effectively meeting the healthcare needs of ethnic minority women who have experienced sexual assault. Understanding this history can help contribute to the implementation of effective interventions and health policies that disrupt hegemonic masculine ideologies by calling for a cultural shift in US society that no longer tolerates violence against women while ensuring the provision of opportunities for women’s healing.