PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Rebecca Stewart

Telephone: 513-479-3335

Email: info@EndToDV.org

Senator Josh Hawley Delivers Powerful Rebuke to Inflammatory Claims by Gender Activists

WASHINGTON / November 19, 2021 – In a recent keynote address sponsored by the Edmund Burke Foundation, Missouri senator Josh Hawley issued a sharp rebuke to the tactics of persons often referred to as “gender activists.” Gender activists posit that Western Civilization is organized on the principle of “patriarchy,” a social and political system that is claimed to be inherently oppressive to women.

In support of this claim, activists cite the existence of domestic violence. In the words of feminist Gloria Steinem, “Patriarchy requires violence, or the subliminal threat of violence, in order to maintain itself….The most dangerous situation for a woman is not an unknown man in the street, or even the enemy in wartime, but a husband or lover in the isolation of their home.” (1)

But Steinem’s pronouncement is provably false. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the leading causes of injury deaths for women are falls, poisonings, and traffic accidents.  Domestic violence injuries do not appear on the list (2).

For the past 25 years, gender activists have attempted to negatively stereotype men by claiming that males commit most cases of domestic violence. But according to the CDC, the exact opposite is true. Each year (3):

o          Males: 4.2 million victims

o          Females: 3.5 million victims

During his speech (4), Senator Hawley revealed, “The deconstruction of America begins with, and depends on, the deconstruction of American men…..This is an effort that the Left has been at for years now, and they have had alarming success.”

Hawley went on to quote professor Suzanna Walters of Northeastern University, who said it “seems logical to hate men” unless they “pledge to vote for feminist women only.”

Senator Hawley then proposed this solution: “We can start by repudiating the lie that America is systemically oppressive, and men are systemically responsible. That is a fantasy, it is a folly, it is a falsehood, and we should call it out for what it is.”

The Coalition to End Domestic Violence urges lawmakers to assure that domestic violence laws and policies are grounded in science, not divisive gender ideology.

Citations:

  1. https://endtodv.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Thirty-Years-of-DV-Half-Truths-Falsehoods-and-Lies.pdf
  2. Karin Mack (2017), Injury Deaths Among U.S. Females: CDC Resources and Programs, Journal of Women’s Health. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28294691/
  3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2018), National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey: 2015 Data Brief – Updated Release, Atlanta, Georgia. Tables 9 and 11. https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/2015data-brief508.pdf
  4. https://thefederalist.com/2021/11/01/hawley-at-natcon-leftists-want-men-to-stand-down-but-were-standing-up-instead/