Kersti Yllo: Wife Rape

"If you're raped by a stranger, you live with a frightening memory. When you're raped by your husband, you live with your rapist."

"I just think that when we recognize and speak out about wife rape, we need to think of the implications for all of the different institutions and contexts in which we work.
Because I think all of them are lacking in their response to wife rape."

"I think most women are unaware that these kinds of assaults are illegal."

"Every chance that we get to break the silence around sexual violence in marriage and think about it and talk about it together and plan ways to address it is very welcome."

 

From 1996:

"WIFE RAPE

This workshop will offer an overview of research on wife rape, including rates of rape in marriage in the US, legal issues, forms of marital rape, and consequences for victims. The workshop will focus on the silence surrounding sexual violence in marriage. This is a problem that remains hidden even in the battered women’s and rape crisis movements. It is, however, coming to the attention of international AIDS workers who are discovering that education about safer sex is of limited value for wives who cannot refuse their husbands. Discussion will focus on increasing awareness of this pervasive form of rape and on developing activist responses.

Kersti Yllo is Professor of Sociology at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, USA. She received her PhD from the University of New Hampshire where she was a Research Associate with the Family Violence Research Program. Her research has focused on domestic violence and marital rape and she has published numerous articles and books including License to Rape: Sexual Abuse of Wives and Feminist Perspectives on Wife Abuse."

Kersti Yllo has continued her work on the issue of marital rape, including two recent books, Sexual Violence in Intimacy and Marital Rape: Consent, Marriage and Social Change in Global Perspective.