Gender and Violence Against Women - Essay Example

Introduction Violence against women and gender-based discrimination are the terms that are used to de the instances that routinely deprive women of their rights as human beings, and yet are either unnoticed or given trivial attention. It is mainly because of the fact that although women are subjected to violence in almost all aspects of their lives, but the place where women mostly confront with assaults, depression and abuses happens to be ‘home’. As a matter of fact, most women are subjected to this sort of violence in the UK only because they do not either have proper access to the social work services, or they consider it socially scandalous to complain about violence at home to the outsiders or even report such instances to police. Because of great significance and prevalence of domestic violence against women, in particular the ethnic minority women, the focus of this paper happens to be on domestic violence among these women and the problems they face in accessing the system. Since I cannot talk about domestic violence without child abuse so the other part of essay will talk about that and implications for practitioners. Domestic Violence Against Women The greatest catastrophe that strikes the women of almost all ages is that they confront with violence and torture nowhere but mostly within the confines of their homes. Home is considered to be the safest place for a person, yet for women, this place mostly turns out to be the most violent place on the earth. Domestic violence is defined by the Home Office as "any violence between current and former partners in an intimate relationship, wherever the violence occurs.  The violence may include physical, sexual, emotional and financial abuse."  Domestic violence occurs across society regardless of age, gender, race, sexuality, wealth and geography. Although domestic violence is also perpetrated to some extent against male family members, yet its prevalence against men is far less than the women. Men are less likely to be physically assaulted on the part of women and even if they are, the chances of severe injuries are very less. “Women are more likely to be repeat victims, to receive threats to kill, to be seriously injured, and to continue to be assaulted and harassed post-separation”. (Harwin, 2006, p558).  Ethnic and cultural minorities such as black women face the domestic violence mostly for the reason that these women feel reluctant to seek help from authorities. Women from ethnic minorities think of their culture and religion in relation to relationships. Research by the home office has shown that for Asian women to leave their partner and actually inform other people of violence they are experiencing may be more difficult than other women. This is because when these women marry they represent their families, and as a consequence if the marriage fails it is seen as the woman’s fault and she is blamed for letting down the family honour.(Shah-Kazemi,2001; Rai and Thiara, 1997). The research undertaken by Nicolson and Wilson (2004) on major determinants of domestic violence on the part of men against women suggests that men regard the occurrence of violence as something beyond their control while blaming their mental stress or health problems for it, rather than the social beliefs. Nicolson and Wilson (p279) say that, “it appears that men may identify causes of domestic violence as being outside or beyond the control of the perpetrator with ‘stress’ and ‘mental health problems’ being extrinsic causative factors favoured by men over women. The odd one out, and the least cited, was ‘because society accepts it’”. Cultural And Power Perceptions Malik and Lindahl (1998) illuminate that domestic violence against women tends to be determined by several cultural and power related factors. The perception that a partner maintains of his influence on the relationship as well as on the victim, for instance through financial means also determine his behaviour towards his partner. Cultural norms that the partners or groups collectively share concerning power and influence roles of male and female tend to put a significant impact on the occurrence of domestic violence. For instance, the societies cherishing a dogma concerning the rightfulness of the repressive male dominance over women tend to accept the acts of male violence more easily than the societies with equal rights irrespective of genders. Besides, certain cultural norms that portray women to be subjugated by men also lead to the social endorsement of domestic violence as natural or private family matters. Individual Characteristics Individual characteristics of partner including education, social status and class also determine the prevalence of violence within the confines of one’s home. Besides these, personality traits involving a partner’s communication, listening and problem solving skills also influence behavioural violence A study shows that males who perpetrate violence over their spouses tend to have lower occupational or educational status, than women, lack of communication skills, and inability to cope with a power clash (Malik and Lindahl, 1998). A male partner can never tolerate his wife having a higher social and economic status than him. Hence, this also happens to be a major cause of husbands taking violent actions against their wives. Also, men with higher educational and income status tend to be less stressed and therefore remain gentle with their female partners. Violence also occurs when there is inability on the part of either husband or wife towards understanding each other and communicating problems. Violent behaviours are mostly a failure of couple’s communication and influencing abilities. Gender Roles And Controls The domestic violence against women is also determined by the extent of a partner’s control, domination and manipulation with respect to the spouse. What spouses perceive of their partner’s right to exert influence and exercise power also have an impact upon the relationships. Hence, violence at home mostly occurs when imbalance of power takes place (Malik and Lindahl, 1998) (Mezey,1997). This also depends on social constructs as to delineating the gender roles and influence within the context of domestic life. As male partners are dominant in most of the family setups, they are likely to repress their female counterparts. The acts of male violence will mostly occur in the case if the woman refuses to accept her husband’s dominance and influence over her wills. This results in power clash and even leads most husbands to batter women so as to put them down by force. Ethnicity And Gender Based Violence Women’s ethnicity has played an important role in determining the extent of violence and discrimination against her. Abraham (1995, p452) asserts that, “…ethnic minority women who are victims of marital violence confront problems on multiple fronts, based on their oppression on sexual, ethnic, cultural, legal and economic grounds…” The women belonging to ethnic minorities get less chance to report a violent domestic event to the police. Their cases are considered trivial if they are less economically strong than men. Some ethnic women also fail to get police help because of their illegal status in a country. Considering the impact of ethnicity on the extent of violence experienced by women, it is worth noticing that Black rural women happen to be victims of male domestic violence (Few, 2005). Ethnicity affects women not only domestically but also paves way for discrimination and violence against her at the workplace. Impact of domestic violence on Women The domestic violence puts adverse effects on women, not only physically but also emotionally and psychologically. It instigates a feeling of fear and shyness into her mind, keeping her from reporting such assaults to the relevant authorities or even her family. Women also regard talking about domestic violence as social stigma and embarrassing events. Such thoughts prevent women to raise voice against violent acts on the part of their husbands and accept this behaviour as a part of their normal lives. Warrington, (2001, p371) propounds that, “women facing abuse in their homes therefore have to cope not only with the psychological, physical and emotional impacts of the abuse, but also with the general perception that their experiences are not normal”. Confronting with abusive behaviour from her partner is detrimental to all the aspects of women’s lives and yet it is mostly unnoticed because women themselves tend to conceal such domestic experiences. The effects of domestic violence can be very long-lasting. People who are abused by a spouse or intimate partner may develop sleeping problems, depression anxiety attacks, lack of trust in others, diminished mental and physical health and poor relationship with their children and loved ones. Domestic Violence may result in death. According to the British Crime Survey 2 women died through domestic violence in the UK. In a research done by Filtcraft (1995), it was found that of 176 women identified through medical records at an accident and emergency department, 52(30%) had been subject to domestic violence during the sample year. In the UK, there are a number of studies showing high rates of self-harm and suicide attempts among Asian women under 30 (Bhugra et al.1999; Son-Raleigh 1996). Ethnic minority and immigrant women facing domestic violence find no way to escape the abuse except to go to a refuge or commit suicide (Sen, 1997). The instances of women harming their own lives as a response to domestic violence are not uncommon. A women’s account suggests the state of mind that leads them to take such stance, “I was right down and everything. I was crying all the time. I was having continued harassment from him, and I was really scared … Looking back, I was very low, I felt suicidal”. (Anita- health service user, Peckover 2003, p. 278) Impact of Domestic Violence On Children There is a common link between domestic violence and child abuse. According to a research by UNICEF, when there is domestic violence there is often a concurrence with child abuse. Stark & Flitcraft (1996) show that 40% to 60% of children witnessing violence against their mothers at home are also likely to face physical abuse from the same perpetrators. Children’s accounts make clear the overlap between women abuse and child abuse. For instance a 6-year old child’s account of the domestic abusive practice was: “He hit my mum, I saw it…My dad hit my sister with a plate and she started bleeding on her head. She was red everywhere”. (6-year old boy; Higgins 1994) Children who have experienced domestic violence in the home experience so much added emotional stress that it can harm the development of their brains and damage their cognitive and sensory growth. Some of the changes in their behaviour can include excessive irritability, sleep problems and language problem. Exposure of domestic violence threatens the development of the brain. Humphreys(2006) suggests that the impact that domestic violence have on children will depend the level of understanding, personality, conditions, coping strategies and level of support. There is one on one level of response. Children show their distress in a wide variety of ways as over anything else. The response can be related to the age of that person. In the youngest for example one might see sleep disturbances, eating problems, unnatural quietness or clinginess. This is how a mother described how her two year old shown reactions: “He was very quiet …he just used to sit….whenever he saw us arguing, he used to be crying his eyes out all the time. He was Mummy, Mummy and coming to me all the time”. (Refuge Study). The effects domestic violence has on children from the black and ethnic minority groups is more than it will have on their white counterparts. “You are left without any help or support from the community, if they feel that you have gone against the religion”. (16-year-old young woman; ESRC study) (Humphreys, 2006, p60). Research also shows that children and young people find it often disturbing to leave their homes with their mothers to escape from the perpetrators. Such decisions on the part of mothers lead a child into the state of mental confusion and also cause irritability. Children’s accounts who had to leave their homes endorse such a view. For instance, Jack , an eleven year old said, “It just happened all of a sudden because my dad came home one night and then- well there’s more bits than this. I’m telling you- and then he got really angry …and everything so we got in a massive argument and then we just packed … well, we just went”. (Jack- 11 year old, Baker 2005, p. 288) Another young person (Jade- aged 15) expressed her views on leaving her home with her mother as, “… [I]t all got too much for her and so she had to leave and then we had to leave… we had to leave our pets and stuff and clothes and personal belongings which we had” (Jade-aged 15, Baker 2005, p. 288) According to Mama (1989) Black children’s experience of living with domestic violence may be compounded by racism and it has been given less attention. She highlighted the barriers which black women and their children face when approaching agencies for help with living violent relationships. Rai and Thiara (1997) have also drawn attention to the impact of immigration law in circumscribing the choices of Asian women caught in situations of domestic violence. The authors also take into account dual problems faced by some women and children of racism within the wider society coupled with rejection from their own communities and the complexities the mothers face in assessing their own and their children’s best interests in the light of these problems. Implications of Domestic Violence for Practitioners In dealing with domestic violence among women from the ethnic minority groups there are issues that practitioners need to be aware and take into considerations. It is important to note that women from the ethnic minority groups may face a whole series of barriers in reaching their social and economic independence. Women from the ethnic minority groups such as black women, face barriers as racism and prejudice, in actually assessing services and resources (Mama, 1989). Certain racist behaviours and cultural norms may also prevent these women from talking about this sort of violence to practitioners. Family traditions such as in South and East Asian ethnic minorities stress women to keep the family tied and stop her from disclosing the instances of domestic violence (Sen, 1997). Therefore it is very important that practitioners understand these issues. Practitioners should be aware that women from the ethnic minority group may be more hesitant to leave their marriage and take legal action due to their religion. An example is in Islamic religion when a woman marries in accordance to Islamic principle they enter into a contract with their husband. This contract is called nikah. It can only be terminated by the husband and thus he can prevent giving religious divorce to his wife so as to torture her mentally. This seriously hampers a women’s way to get out of the husband’s dominance and escape the violence she confronts at home. “I thought that if I went through with the legal divorce everything would then sort itself out but now he refuses to give me a talaq (an Islamic divorce) and I feel lost. That’s why I was not sure whether to take the action in the first place. Now my family won’t speak to me. My advocate understands what I am going through and is there to listen at any time. This is a real comfort to me.”(CRP VAWI Asian project user). Practitioners should be aware that women from the ethnic minority group may face added pressure because of an uncertain immigration status which may prevent them from accessing the services. She may be hesitant to take action against her partner for the fear of losing her right to remain in the UK. Most of the time the husband or the extended family will threaten her by saying that if she discloses information about the violence, they will arrange for her to be deported. In some cases the woman’s passport had been taken away from – this a practical and symbolic expression of control over her life and future. “I was told repeatedly that I didn’t have a legal right to stay here by my husband. The project told me the truth and gave me the correct information. They showed me I could stay here and that I didn’t have to be scared of the authorities tracking me down if l left him”. (CRP VAWI Ghanaian project user). The above quote how service users depend on us in terms of the information we give them. According to the home office development report interviews with Asian women, they in particular preferred if their advocate was an Asian and could speak their language. This is very important especially if the woman could not speak English. The following quote illustrates the point: “It really helped that I could talk to my advocate in my language, I could explain my feelings to her with ease and I knew that she understood the things I was experiencing”. (CRP VAWI Asian project user). However this should not be applied automatically as other interviews suggest that some Asian women preferred an advocate who was from a different background to them. Practitioners should be trained to skilfully and sensitively assess the different factors surrounding a woman, such as cultural beliefs and the sense of loss a woman may feel if she has left her country of origin. Practitioners should be aware of the safety issues surrounding ethnic minority women. An example is a practitioner referring an Asian Women to local Asian women’s Refuge; it is easier for the perpetrator to trace the woman should they wish to. Practitioners should take account of this when making assessments and safety plans and if possible, place a woman in an appropriate refuge in light of this but this should be the Service User’s choice. Apart from providing services to women suffering from domestic violence, the practitioners also need to work with violent men and strive to curtail their violent behaviour. The research conducted by Dobash et al. (1996) shows that the occurrence of violence against female partners on the part of men was reduced after these men were provided adequate service by the social work practitioners in different parts of the UK through various intervention programs. In dealing with domestic violence among the ethnic minority group there is the need to create awareness in all cultures that domestic violence is an offence and unacceptable and let these women know there is an intervention there for them. The way to create the awareness should be appropriate. For example, a poster in different languages placed in mosques, temples, and doctor’s surgeries on television adverts on local channel. Women who has had access to these services should be encouraged to talk to other women who may be experiencing domestic violence. Laws, Policies And Practice On Domestic Violence In UK The New Labour government in UK has been consistently working to combat domestic violence and provide legal help to the affected women. New Labour has demonstrated profound support to the projects concerned with providing assistance to women surviving the domestic violence. It has also built a Children’s Fund that provides support to projects working on the welfare of children who have witnessed and suffered violence at home (Gadd, 2004). The ‘one year rule’ for immigrant women in the UK that had a sheer impact on binding the ethnic minority women to their violent partners was granted a concession in the year 1999 by the Home Office. This law was eased especially for the women affected with domestic violence in case if they were able to prove that they had been victims of violence at home. This stance on the part of the Home office releases ethnic minority women from the chains of violence they were forced to bear in order to continue their stay in the UK. However the CEDAW report (2003) shows that for immigrant women these concessions are greatly inadequate for a women who leaves her violent husband and has to stay alone in a new country. The inadequacy of law in providing proper funding to these women leads them to bear the violence and stay at their husbands’ homes. The policies and practices on perpetrator intervention programs happen to be in the initial stages of development in the UK. It requires considerable attention both from the government and the policy makers to enhance the development of such programs that can protect the women, in particular the ethnic minority women such as South and East Asian women from re-occurrence and repetition of violence at home. As these women are reluctant to break their marriages, such programs would prove effective in minimising the instances of violence. Also there happen to be less initiatives on the part of lawmakers for the assessment of risk for children affected from domestic violence and on children’s protection from abuses. Unless adequate policies and standards are devised, one cannot expect complete safety provided to the women from ethnic minorities. Conclusion Domestic violence among ethnic minority women happens to be the most aggressive because it takes place behind the closed doors and most of the time women conceal such instances. Shelters, refuges, physicians and laws are the last hopes of women willing to run away or end the violence. This paper argues that most women from the ethnic minority groups are reluctant to seek help from the social service organisations because of racism and cultural barriers. There is a lot that needs to be done to create awareness and break the barriers that women from the ethnic minority are facing in dealing with domestic violence. As stated above the practitioners need to create awareness among people that these things are being done. Awareness in the form of advertisements needs to be proliferated in different languages so that women who cannot speak English are not excluded. Pictorial information can also be provided to women, which is understood by everyone. Provision of information on discrete cards like credit card style can be provided so that these women can carry them around easily. 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