Violence Against Rural Women

While there are many commonalties for women who are battered/abused, the rural factors add to and definitely shape the perception, awareness, and intervention in and of all forms of violence against rural women.. . . .

. . . . .One cannot talk about the farm family without talking about the family farm. Partners work side by side in the barn and in the fields. The "boardroom" is the kitchen table or the bedroom. Business life and personal life are intertwined. When an aspect of one is difficult, the aspects of the other also are difficult.

Business ownership is a particular dilemma for women who wish to leave. They leave behind their home, their community, their animals, their business assets, and their job. Most farm partners are not paid a wage, therefore, no unemployment contributions can be made, no pension plan, no social security (for her), and no access to welfare if the system thinks she has access to business assets. If a woman marries into an existing farm that is part of a partnership or corporation, the home and vehicles may be included in the corporation's assets and the woman leaving has little to claim. A farm woman's tie to the farm animals can also bind her to the farm. One scenario is of a farm woman, who after 15 years of abuse, decided to leave. She saved up money from her "family allowance" to pre-pay a relief milker (the day she left) for 2 weeks to care for her animals so she knew that at least they were looked after for a while. Another scenario is of the woman who asked the local Sheriff to find someone to go in and care for her livestock because she knew her husband wouldn't.  

 . . . .asking them to enter a shelter in a "town" is really asking them to change their whole life, not just leave an abusive situation. And asking them to enter a shelter in a rural area - where people know them and their family is just as hard. Then they are saying or implying something about their own decision-making, their own lives, that they do not want the whole world to know. In the past (and not so long ago) if a woman thought of leaving a husband, she was defying God, society, family, everything she knew and held dear for her own 'selfish' needs. By Shirley Erhart, Advocate for Rural Women, South Dakota Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault

...women couldn't leave the farms because they had no transportation of their own...Even if she had transportation, a woman would not ask anyone for help, because the prevailing attitude held that she had made her bed and must lie in it.  People didn't talk much about marital pro`blems, because such things were private. - Deborah Fink, Agraian Women:  Wives and Mothers in Rural Nebraska

"It is vital that battering be viewed not only as a crime but also as a manifestation of structured gender inequality."   -- Kathleen Ferraro, Cops, courts and woman battering

"During this first visit to the Washington shelter, I sensed I was standing at the feet of patriarchy. The very architecture of the shelter, with the security system, the drawn blinds so as to exclude the hostile world, and the residential language of injury and abuse, evidenced the 'reality' of patriarchy."  Rural Woman Battering and the Justice System

"Very few data-based studies of rural battered women exist, but the already significant problems of battered women are likely exacerbated by rural factors. Poverty, lack of public transportation systems, shortages of health care providers, under-insurance or lack of health insurance, and decreased access to many resources (such as advanced education, job opportunities and adequate child care) all make it more difficult for rural women to escape abusive relationships.  In addition, rural health care providers may be acquainted with or related to their patients and their families, creating a barrier to disclosing abuse confidentially and thus further isolating these women. Geographical isolation and cultural values, including strong allegiance to the land, kinship ties and traditional gender roles also increase the challenges faced by rural women when they attempt to end the abuse in their live. The increased availability of weapons (such as firearms and knives) common in rural households also increases both the risks and lethality of domestic attacks upon rural women." Rural Health Response to Domestic Violence: Policy and Practice Issues

Difficulty with Anonymity

Somewhere in the Rocky Mountain West, or out there on the Great Plains, a battered woman waits -- under the glaring lights at the police station or county sheriff's office, at the truck stop parking lot, or near a phone booth outside one of the three liquor stores in this town of 3,200 people.

Her children cling to her, clutching their blankets in the chill air.  Someone is coming, perhaps a stranger, or perhaps someone they already know from church, or have seen in the grocery store.  She might even be a relative.  - NCADV Rural Task Force Resource Packet, January 1991, Second Edition

Invisible and Voiceless

"Writing to the battered women's movement about rural women feels a lot like having a lot to say and not being sure anyone is listening.

Most rural battered women are excluded from dialogue, theory-building and decision-making within the movement.  Perhaps, this is not surprising, given that 75 percent of all United States citizens live on only 25 percent of the land, most clustered in cities.  The rest of us live scattered, almost invisibly, across the remaining area.

Rootedness in the land is integral to our sense of self.  Being torn from it is a vulnerable feeling akin to rape and bereavement.  When a battered woman flees her abuser whom she loves, and who she thought loved her, she suffers not only the trauma of abuse, but loses an essential component of her rooted identity." from NCADV Rural Task Force Resource Packet.

Prevalence of Anti-woman Violence in Rural Areas

In Rural Woman Battering and the Justice System, Neil Websdale reports that the existing research shows rural areas are far less likely to witness violent crime than urban areas.  However, women in rural areas are as likely as women in central cities and suburban counties to report being the victims of intimate violence.

Many kinds of isolation

"While no battered women's program begins or stays alive without the support of important segments of small communities, even those supportive groups apply pressure on the programs to 'moderate the message.'  Be professional, cooperate, smile, don't be strident, dress nicely; above all, defend yourself properly from those rumblings that you're a 'manhater' and the shelter is 'just a place where they try to turn out women into Lesbians.'  [Or 'tell everyone to get a divorce,' adds RWZ.]  Thus, an advocate seeks safety in agreement with The Man, whether he be judge, police officer, or board member, who denies or minimizes the reality of Jane Smith's victimization.

"There's no place to hide in a country with only 5,000 people.  The activist worker who wants to promote social change, eliminate the myths about battered women, and teach the realities of racism, homophobia, classism, and how they nourish violence against women, is well known and, at the same time, highly isolated.  Her support system is scattered (two women in her town, another 30 miles away, others somewhere in this very large state), and her opportunities to retreat and heal are so limited."  - NCADV Rural Task Force Resource Packet, January 1991, Second Edition

The Backlash

Our experience with resistance to our work leads us to new forms of women's culture.

When historical conditions are right and women have both the social space and the social experience in which to ground their new understanding, feminist consciousness develops.  Historically, this takes place in distinct stages:  (1)  the awareness of a wrong; (2) the development of a sense of sisterhood; (3) the autonomous definition by women of their goals and strategies for changing their condition and (4) the development of an alternate vision of the future.

The recognition of a wrong becomes political when women realize that it is shared with other women.  In order to remedy this collective wrong, women organize in political, economic and social life.  The movements they organize inevitably run into resistance, which forces the women to draw on their own resources and strength.  In the process, they develop a sense of sisterhood.  This process also leads to new forms of women's culture, forced upon women by the resistance they encounter.  ....Based on such experiences, women begin to define their own demands and to develop theory. - Gerda Lerner, The Creation of Patriarchy

Unique Problems in Rural Areas

Victims of domestic violence who live in rural areas face special challenges. While batterers tend to isolate their victims in any geographic setting, for women in rural areas, this isolation is often even more severe. They may live miles from their nearest neighbor, friend or family member. Lack of available childcare, few job opportunities, inadequate public transportation, distance from shelters and services, and poverty and economic dependence are just some of the barriers that can make escaping a violent relationship even harder for rural women.

A lack of anonymity and confidentiality also makes it more difficult for victims of abuse to come forward and seek help. In small towns, it can seem as if everyone knows everyone else. Judges and police officers who know both a batterer and his victim socially may be less likely to recognize the severity of an assault. Underserved rural populations, including immigrants, African Americans, Native Americans, and gays and lesbians, face additional barriers as well.  From Family Violence Prevention Fund article Danger in a Small Town:  The Impact of Domestic Violence in Rural Communities

Identification of barriers to criminal justice systems for rural women victims from the
U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs:

Without understanding the unique characteristics of the rural environment, it is impossible to respond appropriately and fully to domestic violence and child victimization in rural areas. Rural environments are distinct from urban environments in ways that affect the ability of the criminal justice system to investigate and prosecute domestic violence and child victimization cases. Furthermore, rural environments present barriers that create difficulties for service providers in treating and counseling victims. The geographical and cultural features of the rural environment impact the ability of abused rural women and children to access the justice system and social services agencies. They also impede the ability of rural justice systems and agencies to provide essential services.

"...the policing of rural woman battering is complex, contradictory, and multifaceted.  Different agencies respond to violence against women in different ways, producing a mosaic of social control initiatives that coexist alongside other responses of the patriarchal state."  - Rural Women Battering and the Justice System.

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