by Dr. Oliver J. Williams

Book Review:

Knowing What We Know, by Gail Garfield

In Knowing What We Know, author Gail Garfield encourages readers to rethink the way they view violence against women. Her approach is to interview women who are older now and have some distance from the domestic violence they experienced as young women.

Rather than allowing “knowers” or experts to frame the issue, Garfield allows domestic violence victims to frame the issue in their own terminology. This is a book that allows people who have experienced domestic violence to define the problem.

It allows readers to approach the topic in a more effective way. Let’s listen, and ask ourselves “how can I help?” As our cover article also suggests, we need to listen carefully to victims before we can effectively define our solutions.

Facing social and cultural constraints

Garfield, an activist and sociologist, uses interviews with nine African-American women who have experienced racialized, classbased, and/or gender-based violence. She implies that cultural and social restrictions imposed on black women conflict with a women’s individuality, and sometimes lead to these forms of violence. She shows how racialized, class-based, and gender-based violence intersect, as well as how, over time, the nine women overcame adversity.

Garfield encourages readers and those who study violence against women to take life experiences into consideration, like the nine women she interviewed. By doing this, Garfield believes people will look at violence against women in a more comprehensive manner, exploring woman’s relationship with men, as well as the social and cultural context of women’s lives.

Garfield explains how an individual’s interactions in a social and cultural environment influence their experiences. These interactions and experiences then shape how an individual perceives and responds to reality, and ultimately, how an individual sees his or herself. She argues that social and cultural constraints frequently conflict with black women’s individuality, needs, interests, aspirations, decisions and actions. Despite cultural and social practices that interfered with their sense of personhood, the nine women in Knowing What We Know maintained, and in some cases, regained their sense of self-worth.

Garfield conducted in-depth conversations with nine African American women who were born during or just after World War II, ensuring that the women had ample life experiences as well as informative reflections of their past. To tell their stories, these women describe who they were and who they’ve become as they experience the cycles of violence and transformation. Although Garfield realizes that their stories do not apply to all black women, she believes their stories, experiences and perceptions of reality contribute to what it means to be an African-American female.

Effects of facing DV with no official support

Garfield exclusively interviewed women who have not received support from institutional systems that provide assistance to female victims of violence, such as human, legal, clinical, or criminal justice organizations. Garfield found that some women who go through these institutions become influenced by the standards imposed on them. Garfield argues that women’s experiences and problems have not been addressed, or included in funding decisions, by these systems as much as they should.

When attempting to understand violence against women, Garfield notes that there are two intersecting parts to consider. First, is an understanding of how these violent encounters reflect one’s response to cultural and social constraints. Second, is knowing what violence was done, by whom, and why. The way a woman’s individuality collides with social and cultural restraints expose how violence is experienced by women.

Knowing What We Know also addresses broader issues, encouraging readers to think about and discuss what it means to value the lives of women. Reflecting about women’s life experiences and how they are valued in our society enables us to explore what needs to be done in order for women to live in a society that treats them fairly.

This book provides unique insights into the perspectives of domestic violence victims. In her next book, Garfield will examine the lives of black men and their experience with violence. Both books remind us that people lives are multidimensional and domestic violence solutions must be as well.