“Nasty Women” – Mobilizing Female Aggression to Potentiate Women and Silence the Patriarchy 1

This chapter concerns the complex relationship between women and aggression, one that is troubled by numerous cultural biases constraining women to be nice, never angry, and avoid aggressive self-assertion. These social forces shaped by a powerful patriarchy have silenced women throughout time.The author discusses a personal vignette reflecting struggles with aggression, as well astwo clinical examples in which female patients worked to mobilize aggression for constructive use. The chapter then explores the cultural and political underpinnings of a powerful patriarchy that subjugates women by sanctioning their aggressive voices.