Identifying the Barriers to Women's Agency in Domestic Violence: The Tensions between Women's Personal Experiences and Systemic Responses

Jo Aldridge

doi:10.17645/si.v1i1.109

Abstract

Despite advances in knowledge and understanding about the impacts of domestic violence on women's lives, global research on violence against women shows there is a need for research that not only places women centre stage in research praxis, but also that involves them more collaboratively in genuine dialogue about their experiences, including their agentic stances. This is especially the case for marginalised and socially excluded women victims of domestic violence, such as those who are not known or do not present to services and who survive abusive relationships alone or with little outside support. Evidence from two studies reported here—secondary analysis of women with severe and enduring mental health problems and a collaborative narrative project with unsupported women victims of domestic violence—suggest that women's capacity for agency are compromised by a number of critical factors, and that these are also reflected in the tensions between micro–macro analyses and understanding of the impact of domestic violence on women. This article considers the barriers to women's agency from the women's perspective and in the context of broader, systemic dynamics, including the denial or obscuring of abuse by governments and states and the consequences of stringent fiscal retrenchment that put women at increased risk of domestic violence.

Highlights

While research suggests that many women exercise a degree of agency and resistance to domestic violence when it occurs [1], it is recognised that specific aspects of women's agency in unsupported domestic violence contexts are largely missing
The harms caused by domestic violence, the perpetuation of women's vulnerability as victims and the barriers to agency or resilience are compounded by broader, systemic factors such as ineffective or inappropriate support services and interventions, as well as political and ideological influences
The secondary analysis data from this study suggested the need to look more closely at the needs of unsupported women victims of domestic violence using methods that might help to draw out women's individual stories in more detail

Summary

Introduction

While research suggests that many women exercise a degree of agency and resistance to domestic violence when it occurs [1], it is recognised that specific aspects of women's agency in unsupported domestic violence contexts are largely missing. In identifying unsupported victims of domestic violence, such word of mouth techniques are often critical, in many respects these do not result in high numbers of women participants This does not mean that the rigour or credibility of the research is inevitably surrendered for the sake of access, but that this must be balanced against the necessity of 'conducting studies in populations where inherent barriers exist relative to key issues such as recruitment, attrition, sampling size...' In terms of the evidence generated from both of these studies, the stories or narratives of the women themselves were obtained both purposefully and serendipitously from unsupported women victims of domestic violence

Analysis of Mental Health Data

The Write It Study

Perpetrator Accountability

Conclusion