Belonging: women living with intellectual disabilities and experiences of domestic violence

Women with an intellectual disability are under-represented in domestic violence research, yet they are one of the most vulnerable groups who are at risk of violence and abuse. This article aims to contribute to the domestic violence field by reporting on a narrative dialogic performative study, which utilised a feminist poststructural perspective to explore significant relationships and the concept of belonging in the lives of women with a mild intellectual disability. Four in-depth narrative interviews were conducted. The study found that the women shared similar stories of devaluation and rejection in childhood and hence the women’s search for belonging contributed to their vulnerability to exploitation and abuse in domestic violence relationships. The paper argues that gendered discourses and constructions of intellectual disability regulate domestic violence as a personal problem or way of life for women with intellectual disabilities.     

‘What kind of abuse is him spitting in my food?’: reflections on the similarities between disability hate crime,so-called ‘mate’ crime and domestic violence against women with intellectual disabilities

Domestic violence against women with learning disabilities is a wholly under-researched topic. A recent study indicated that there are strong parallels between domestic violence, disability hate crime and ‘mate’ crime. This article explores these similarities and argues that rather than treating them as discrete phenomena, we need to make the connections and re-affirm the commitment that feminist scholars and activists made long ago, namely to take violence committed in private as seriously as that committed in public.     

Pushing the boundaries of our understanding of disability and violence: voices from the Global South (Guyana)

Our knowledge about disabled people’s lives is largely based on research in the Global North. This article considers disability and violence in the Global South, specifically in Guyana. It aims to push conceptual and empirical boundaries of our understanding of violence and disability. Conceptually, it argues for a social model materialist theory of disability attuned to how material barriers to disabled people’s inclusion in society and space are reproduced through processes of exclusion unfolding across geographic scales ranging from the global, to the inter-personal and intra-personal. It argues that Lacanian psycho-analytic theory provides a complimentary lens for understanding why people engage in acts that construct disabled people as ‘deserving’ of violence. Empirically, the article broadens our understanding of disability and violence by focusing on poverty, violence as a cause of impairment and disability, and disabled women’s and men’s experiences of violence in a majority world context.     

Navigating uncertainty,employment and women’s safety during COVID-19: Reflections of sexual assault resistance educators

COVID-19 affects women in ways unique to the impacts of structural inequalities related to gender, sexuality, disability, race and socioeconomic status. In this article, we reflect on our own experiences of the pandemic, as feminist students, workers and sexual assault resistance educators located in a Canadian post-secondary setting. Situating ourselves within feminist responses to sexual violence prevention, as facilitators of the Enhanced Assess, Acknowledge, and Act (EAAA) sexual assault resistance education programme for university women, we reflect on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on our work as EAAA facilitators in our Canadian university. We explore the theoretical possibilities that critical disability theory and queer theory present to the EAAA programme, and argue that incorporating concepts from these frameworks will complement the goals of the EAAA programme and improve inclusivity of queer, trans and disabled participants. We conclude with a look into the future by anticipating the impacts of COVID-19 on our future work.     

Rethinking Gender and Violence: Agency,Heterogeneity, and Intersectionality

This paper is a consideration of the increasing diversity of images of gender violence and its victims, as both the grassroots antiviolence activists, and the scholars of the movements and the violence that inspires the activism, engage with cultural codes and feeling rules that tend to narrow the criteria for what constitutes gender violence and victimization. We are coming to better understand that social location, including but not limited to positions within patriarchal systems of stratification, shapes violence and victimization in many different ways. Since the inception of the women’s movement, the discourse of victimization has grappled with the implications of constructing ‘pure victims’, and despite the tremendous progress in the resources available to survivors of gender violence, we find the tensions between victimization and agency, and between simplicity and complexity, reemerging repeatedly in the stories victims, activists, and scholars tell about this social problem. Below, we review the sociological research and activism, in conjunction with the collective narratives in the social movements against gender violence, to show how the issues of perceptions of women who are framed as victims began and remain central to feminist research in this area. We also explore the newest visions of gender violence, that broaden theorizing and activism to include multiple dimensions of inequality and their intersections. Taken together, these debates reveal multifaceted layers of complexity that inform the contexts and lived experience of violence, and that continue to enter into our storytelling.     

Making a murderer: The importance of gender and violence against women in mass murder events

This article examines sex, gender, and gender violence (e.g., dating/domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking) as related to mass murder events. Specifically, the paper explores (a) sex/gender and mass murder and (b) violence against women prior to and directly associated with mass murder events. A multidimensional framework guided by critical feminist thought is presented to offer a nuanced approach to understanding offending. The paper argues that mass murder, a gendered phenomenon, is a way by which some individuals “do gender,” an expression of aggrieved entitlement and representation of toxic masculinity resulting from the collision of individual, relational, community, and cultural forces that impact perpetrator attitudes, decisions, and behavior. The paper advances knowledge by drawing attention to men's violence against women preceding mass murder events, one of the most common yet overlooked risk factors. Other gendered aspects are also discussed. In all, findings suggest that sexist beliefs/norms stemming from gender role expectations in patriarchal cultures are reinforced by male peer support and institutional failures that fuel violence against women and mass murder events. Thus, if we are to tackle the issue of mass murder, we need to take the lived experiences of women and girls more seriously and work on gendered‐oriented and gender‐informed solutions.     

Gendered experiences of physical restraint on locked wards for women

Physical restraint is used in inpatient services for people with intellectual disabilities as a way of holding a person to avoid injury. This article uses data from an ethnographic study in a locked unit in the north of England to explore women’s experiences of physical restraint using a feminist disability studies analysis. Data consists of field notes as well as interviews with 16 of the women who had experienced restraint, and 10 staff who worked with them. The women gave insights into the gendered phenomenon of restraint in light of their past experiences of violence. The authors argue that restraint is used with women to encourage passivity at times when more relational and therapeutic methods could be used. The article offers recommendations for alternative strategies that services can encourage.     

Deepening and widening the gap: The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on gender and racial inequalities in Brazil

Shaped by inconsistent policy decisions, the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil has made structural gender and racial inequalities more acute. Black and low-income women are overburdened with unpaid domestic work, increased domestic violence, and more vulnerable due to informal and exploitative working regimes. These structural aspects are intensifying, since the pandemic has broadened inequalities at the intersection of gender, race, labor market, and social class. We examine pre- and during pandemic inequalities on three dimensions: (a) unpaid domestic and care work, (b) women's labor market participation, and (c) domestic violence. We link the care diamond model and racial stratification forwarding a feminist perspective by examining how the interlocking of race and gender in Brazil renders different socioeconomic dynamics to the detriment of Black and low-income women. Based on this evidence, we stress that a more equal future requires a better social protection and policies targeting the articulation of gender, race, and class.     

Intimate Violence against Rural Women: The Current and Future State of Feminist Empirical and Theoretical Contributions

Rural crime in general ranks among the least studied social problems in the social sciences; however, a growing body of research shows that rural woman abuse is a major problem. The current state of progressive critical feminist social scientific knowledge enhances an empirical and theoretical understanding of intimate violence against rural women. Revealing the complexities of rural women's experiences and struggles with violent relationships reconstitutes violence against women as a public crisis that requires continued serious attention with regard research, theory, and policy. Three primary objectives of this article are as follows: (i) briefly review recent feminist social scientific literature on research, methodology, and theoretical contributions on violence against women in rural areas, (ii) suggest new directions in researching and theorizing rural women's experiences with intimate violence, and (iii) offer creative practical and policy solutions towards a broad vision of social change.     

Feminization of refugee: Intersectionality,solidarity, resistance

This work aims to examine a possible change of feminist civil society pertaining to inclusivity with a particular interest in violence. It evaluates state-civil society relations, coping mechanisms with domestic violence and solidarity patterns with female refugees. It proposes a novel theoretical contribution, ‘feminization of refugee’ suggesting a positive shift in the empowerment of refugee women through bidirectional solidarity, intersectionality and resistance which consequently diversifies and invigorates the civil society itself. The findings suggest that the manifestation of a resistant civil society in Turkey inclined to withhold a strong feminist stance with a rights-based approach. The findings further manifest a growing need towards shelters in the pandemic experience which recalls capacity building requirements of civil society for refugee women against violence.     

Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain!

Abstract

This paper considers issues of violence against women through the conceptual lens of public/private ideology, exploring numerous ways that the public/private dichotomy is reinforced in the law and public policy of rape, domestic violence, and sexual harassment. We argue that the power of this ideology continues into the contemporary law of gendered violence, as evidenced most recently by the Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Morrison (2000). We find that public/private ideology offers men a “violence shield”: freedom from scrutiny that enables gendered violence to thrive. Although gendered violence is now on the public agenda, these crimes remain shielded from scrutiny because they are associated with the private sphere. We suggest that feminist activists concentrate on undermining these ideological roots when crafting strategies to combat violence against women.     

The meaning of workplace discrimination for women with disabilities

Studies have found that persons with disabilities who are also members of other minority groups or women encounter dual discrimination. This paper describes how women with disabilities who are in the workplace experience discrimination. In order to determine whether discrimination was a viable issue, theoretical contexts of feminist theory, disability theory, and attribution theory were examined as well as literature examining employment of women with disabilities. For this study, three women with various disabilities were interviewed regarding the effect of their disability on their typical workday, their employment and job seeking history, and employment opportunities. Qualitative data were also provided through mapping by the participants and pictorial data of worksites. Data were grouped into themes of pre-conceived notions of others, attitudes of others, accommodation issues, inclusion issues and exploitation issues. From these themes definitions of discrimination, nondiscrimination in the workplace were developed. Conclusions include the need for more research on workplace experiences of other or more specific populations that experience discrimination as well as the need for ethical reflection on the part of the researcher regarding vulnerable populations.     

Apples and Oranges in Child Custody Disputes: Intimate Terrorism vs. Situational Couple Violence

ABSTRACT

In response to Dutton's (this issue) critique of feminist theories of domestic violence, the author of this article makes three points relevant to the debate about the gender asymmetry of intimate partner violence. First, there are three major types of intimate partner violence, only one of which (intimate terrorism) is the kind of violence that we all think of when we hear the term “domestic violence.” Second, both major types of sampling designs in domestic violence research are seriously biased, and those biases account for the fact that both sides of this debate have been able to marshal ostensibly contradictory empirical evidence for their position. Third, intimate terrorism (also know as domestic violence, spouse abuse, wife-beating, etc.) is, indeed, primarily male-perpetrated and, in the case of heterosexual relationships, probably best understood through some version of a feminist theory of domestic violence. The author then discusses the implications of these points for assessment of risk in child custody deliberations.     

Men,masculinity and "gender in development"

Articles and training materials on gender issues always talk about women. This focus is logical given the main goal of fostering the involvement of women as equal partners in the development process. The problems faced by men are rarely considered. Moreover, gender training, one of the core strategies of gender and development practice, rarely addresses men's experiences as men. By ignoring the complexities of the male experience, characterizing men as the problem, and continuing to focus upon women as the oppressed, development initiatives attempting to be gender-aware can fail to effectively address the issues of equity and empowerment. The author focuses upon the implications of recent work in feminist theory and questions of masculinity, stressing the need to consider the complex and variable nature of gender identities, and to work with men in exploring the constraints of dominant models of masculinity.     

Help,harm or hinder? Non-governmental service providers’ perspectives on families and gender-based violence against women with intellectual disabilities in South Africa

Through in-depth interviews with service providers from non-governmental organisations (n = 58), this article describes the intricacy of familial relationships for women with intellectual disabilities in South Africa who experience gender-based violence. The findings suggest that families navigate social stigma, limited resources and isolation, whilst trying to be vigilant against gender-based violence and disability-related violence, and respond to it as it happens. However, family members are also simultaneously implicated in violence perpetration. We suggest that a social relational model of disability could help account for these crucial intra-familial dynamics.     

Understanding domestic violence against women: using evolutionary psychology to extend the feminist functional analysis

Evolutionary psychologists such as Wilson and Daly (1993b) hypothesize that one goal of male-perpetrated domestic violence is control over female sexuality, including the deterrence of infidelity. According to this hypothesis, domestic violence varies with women's reproductive value or expected future reproduction, declining steeply as women age. We tested this hypothesis with a sample of 3,969 cases of male-perpetrated partner-abuse reported to a single police precinct in a large urban area over a 14-year period. Results show that (a) rates of domestic violence decrease as women age, (b) younger men are at greatest risk for perpetrating domestic violence, (c) younger, reproductive age women incur nearly 10 times the risk of domestic violence as do older, post-reproductive age women, and (d) the greater risk of domestic violence incurred by reproductive age women is not attributable solely to mateship to younger, more violent men. Discussion addresses theoretical implications of these findings and suggests a refinement of the feminist hypothesis of domestic violence against women.     

Survivors of Woman Abuse

Abstract

The feminist social work and related literature on abused women has focused on women's processes of empowerment but has overlooked the question of women's movement from individual survival to collective resistance. In this feminist qualitative study, I explore the processes through which survivors of abuse by male partners become involved in collective action for social change. Using story telling as a research method, I interviewed 11 women about the processes, factors, insights, and events that prompted them to act collectively to address violence against women. I found that women's movement from individual survival to collective action entails significant changes in consciousness and subjectivity. Women's processes of conscientization are complex, contradictory and often painful because they involve political and psychic dimensions of subjectivity, protracted struggles with contradictions and conflict, and resistance to knowledge that threatens to unsettle relatively stable notions of identity. I suggest that feminist social work theory and practice must take into account three interrelated elements of women's transformative journeys: the discursive and material conditions that facilitate women's movement to collective action; the social, material and psychic costs of women's growth; and the multifaceted and difficult nature of women's journey in recognizing and naming abuse, making sense of their experiences, and acting on this knowledge to work for change. I recommend that feminist social work practice with survivors recognize that survivors can and do contribute to social change, and develop new, more inclusive liberatory models of working with survivors of abuse.     

Religion,male violence,and the control of women: Pakistani Muslim men in Bradford,UK

This paper examines Pakistani Muslim male violence in the public and private spheres in Bradford, UK. The article also explores the relationship between male violence and ideas of culture and religion. The material used was collected over a 4-year period from students and staff in further and higher education institutions; working women (prostitutes); survivors of domestic violence; police personnel who work with Asian women fleeing domestic violence or forced marriages; and staff of a children's society working with teenage prostitutes. Methodologies included lectures, seminars, focus groups, and interviews. Findings reveal that there is a difference between male and female attitudes towards Islam. Some men are using it to justify violence against women, while women of all ages and backgrounds are using it as a source of strength and to negotiate (with ingenuity and humor) the cultural and religious requirements which men try to impose upon them.     

Ruling the Exceptions:

This paper examines the challenges presented to current gender-based domestic violence theory by the existence of same-sex domestic violence. Charging the dominant theory is heterosexist and ignores the experience of battered lesbians and gay men, Island and Letellier (1991) have argued that domestic violence is not a gender issue and advocate a psychological framework that emphasizes batterer treatment. Examining the theoretical conflicts, this paper attempts to domenstrate that sociopolitcal and psychological theories can be successfully integrated into a social-psychological model. Such a model, developed by Zemsky (1990) and Gilbert, Poorman, and Simmons (1990), is explored and critiqued as an excellent beginning. By integrating psychological principles and sociological concepts, this theory explores the many dimensions of power and explains the phenomenon of domestic violence as it occurs in all relationship configurations. Suggestions for further theoretical considerations and research are made.     

Complexity of domestic violence in a South Asian context in Hong Kong: cultural and structural impact

With the dearth of empirical research related to the experiences of domestic violence among South Asian communities in Hong Kong, this study engages with migrant South Asian women’s subjective understanding and experience of domestic violence. Presenting women’s narratives of their experiences with domestic violence allow for a better understanding of the complexities that inform and shape women’s experiences and decision-making in the face of partner violence. This empirical study investigated South Asian women’s experience of domestic violence in the context of Hong Kong through in-depth interviews with 14 South Asian women who had experienced abuse and 6 helping professionals from 4 social service agencies. Analysis of the data revealed that the nature and context of abuse posed as a barrier in their help seeking. The findings highlight the importance of understanding the influence of cultural and structural conditions and the difficulties and complexities women face that increases women’s vulnerability to abuse. This paper offers an analysis of how structures thereby come to impact on women’s distress and vulnerability. The study also highlights the need for inclusive service provision for minority ethnic women experiencing domestic violence.