Violence Against Housewives

812 Words2 Pages

Violence Against Housewives

The Objectives of Dobash and Dobash’s work was to explain and describe

domestic violence against women in modern society.

The aims of Dobash and Dobash were to show how families can often be a

violent group, illustrate how domestic violence can be about female

subordination and male dominance. And demonstrate to the public

something that they knew little about a ‘hidden’ problem.

Dobash and Dobash’s research method used informal interviews with

victims of domestic violence but also the people who had worked with

and helped the victims e.g. social workers. They used orienting

questions on a variety of aspects such as socialisation into the use

of violence.

The sample size involved 109 interviews with women who were living in

refuges for battered women in Edinburgh and Glasgow. The women were

from both working and middle class backgrounds and averaged from 21-30

years old. There were constant interviews between 2-12 hours, which

took place within a few days after the women’s arrival at the refuge.

Methods such as Taping were very important in their research.

Dobash and Dobash’s ethics allowed the women to understand the

investigation and whether or not they wanted to expose their feelings

towards their abuse. For the women who were actually willing to do

this. The relevance of family background, education, childhood and

early experiences of violence were part of the chosen questions. This

then encouraged the women to adjust or explore the issue as far as

they wanted. This ended up producing a more complex out come in the

interviews.

Section C. – Reasons for selection of research design.

Ethics were crucial in Dobash and Dobash’s choice of method. They

were probing into personal lives of the women and needed a method that

gave them time to establish a more personal report. They gained the

women’s trust so that their aims could be explored. Dobash and Dobash

used experienced and trained researchers to carry out the interviews.

Obviously they didn’t want the women to feel more vulnerable and

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