Domestic Violence in Diverse Contexts ─ A Re-examination of Gender

Overwhelmingly, it is women who are the victims of domestic violence and this book puts women’s experiences of domestic violence at its centre, whilst acknowledging their many diverse and complex identities.

Concentrating on the various forms of domestic abuse and its occurrence and manifestations within different contexts, it argues that gender is centrally implicated in the unique factors that shape violence across all these areas. Individual chapters outline the experiences of:

• Mothers
• Older women
• Women with religious affiliations
• Refugee women
• Rural women
• Aboriginal women
• Women in same-sex relationships
• Women with intellectual disabilities.

Exploring how domestic violence across varying contexts impacts on different women’s experiences and understandings of abuse, this innovative work draws on post-structural feminist theory and how these ideas view, and potentially allow, gendered explanations of domestic violence. Domestic Violence in Diverse Contexts is suitable for academics and researchers interested in issues around violence and gender.

Sarah Wendt is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy, and co-director of the Research Centre for Gender Studies at the University of South Australia.

Lana Zannettino is Senior Lecturer in Sociology in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Flinders University, South Australia.