Violence Against Women In Intimate Relationships

Violence Against Women in Intimate Relationships

Domestic violence is a conscious behavior in which acts of violence and aggression are carried out by one person in a relationship to dominate the other. This violence consists of deliberate verbal, sexual, emotional, psychological, and physical abuse, along with social and economic deprivation. Statistics and studies show victims of domestic violence are mostly women and their children, but men are victims as well. Friends, spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends, and even family members are capable of demonstrating domestic violence. This widespread practice negatively affects gay, lesbian, bisexual, and straight individuals of all ages, cultures, and social backgrounds.

Violent and abusive relationships are often problematic for many women to escape, and it is sad to see that these women must undergo additional setbacks including race and class struggles. The specific issues that contribute to the difficulty of leaving an abusive partner include economic and financial instability, child custody issues, language barriers, and lack of ethnically sensitive services. Girlfriends and wives who are dependent upon their abusive partner’s income have a harder time escaping the abuse, because they do not have money to support themselves independently. If the woman has a child with her partner, this poses an even more difficult situation because she would have to consider the child’s needs. In result, if the woman has no one else to turn to, she must stay and suffer the abusive environment. Wen Lin and Imm Tan’s essay “Holding Up More Than Half the Heavens,” addresses the lack of multicultural and multilingual services for battered Asian Pacific American women. “In the entire United States, only two shelters exist for Asian Pacific American women” (Wen Lin and Imm Tan, 464). Their essay brings to light the issue of who is taken into women’s shelters and who is turned away. Women of different cultures who cannot speak English are the individuals being deprived of shelter services often “because of language and cultural difficulties or sheer racism” (Wen Lin and Imm Tan, 464). “The language barrier, in effect, shuts out most refugee and immigrant women” (Wen Lin and Imm Tan, 464). Shelters are these women’s last hope, and once they are refused help, they must return to violence in their homes once again. As...

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...realize that they do have rights and there is a way out.

Works Cited

Anonima, Latina., “La Princesa.” Kesselman, McNair, and Nancy Schneidwind, eds. Women: Images and Realities, a Multicultural Anthology. 3rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003.

Fisher-Hertz, Lanette., “Countdown.” Kesselman, McNair, and Nancy Schneidwind, eds. Women: Images and Realities, a Multicultural Anthology. 3rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003.

Imm Tan, Cheng., and Margareta Wan Lin., “Holding Up More Than Half the Heavens.” Kesselman,

McNair, and Nancy Schneidwind, eds. Women: Images and Realities, a Multicultural Anthology.

3rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003.

Jones, Ann., "Battering: Who’s Going to Stop It?" Kesselman, McNair, and Nancy Schneidwind eds. Women: Images and Realities, a Multicultural Anthology. 3rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003.

Kesselman, McNair, and Nancy Schneidwind, eds. Women: Images and Realities, a Multicultural Anthology.

3rd ed. New York: McGraw- Hill, 2003.

Martin, Del., “A Letter From a Battered Wife.” Kesselman, McNair, and Nancy Schneidwind, eds.

Women: Images and Realities, a Multicultural Anthology. 3rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003.