ABSTRACT
Bourdieu’s concepts of misrecognition and symbolic violence help to extricate the matrix of patriarchy, power and social relations. By drawing on social perceptions of specific forms of violence against women (VAW), this chapter highlights how attitudes towards patriarchal structures in both the private and public sectors collude with, and are embedded in, gendered practices and policies. This notion points to the erosion of gender capital based on the reproduction of domination and the representation of gender, often framed within the parameters of gender, domesticity and sexuality (particularly heterosexuality).
