The Partnership/Domination social scale shows the connections between family violence, community violence, state violence, and international violence. It reveals that violence in families sets a pattern that normalizes the use of force to impose one's will on others. Children's experiences of violence in their families teach them that one either dominates or is dominated, and that violence is justified and even "moral" to "solve" conflicts.
To build cultures of peace, we must start in the family, with ending abuse and violence against women and children. Peace education must include education for nonviolence in parent-child and gender relations if it is to be effective. In the classroom, social and racial justice, the history of slavery, genocide and colonialism, and human rights education must be a part of public school curriculum.
Riane Eisler's analysis of the connection of intimate violence with warfare and other forms of group violence has been featured in many publications, including the Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict (she is on the editorial board) and the World Encyclopedia of Peace. She has received many honors for her work on peace, including the 2009 Distinguished Peace Leadership Award, earlier awarded to the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
