Support Networks and Structural Challenges

Chapter 5 extends the issues discussed in the previous two chapters and explores women’s use of informal and formal support networks. It also describes the structural challenges women confront, such as their religious communities and/or the criminal justice system, as they move forward in the years following the termination of their abusive relationships.

Situating the Research Project

Chapter 2 accomplishes two things. First, it outlines the research methodology conducted in the project, detailing the two groups of women that comprise the sample. Second, it explores the blurred boundaries between images of victims and survivors. Rather than an either/or dichotomy, the women talked about how victimization and survivorship exist on a continuum; the chapter further makes sense of the meanings adopted by the women and examines their implications.

Framing the Issues

Chapter 1 explores the key theoretical and empirical literature that guides the research project. It describes the pushes and pulls that women experience in relationships characterized by IPV/A and it outlines what we understand women need in the short term and long term after the dissolution of a violent relationship. This chapter also incorporates a discussion of central thematic concepts such as growth, healing from trauma, individual agency and collective efficacy, identity, and meaning making. I challenge the false, or incomplete, assumption that there is some kind of closure for women after leaving a violent relationship. Finally, it looks at what it means to be “resilient.”

Paths to Survivorship and Suggestions for Policy

Chapter 6 addresses the broader impact and significance of the research, exploring the meaning of long-term recovery, growth, and resilience by recognizing the multiple pathways to survivorship. Policy implications and recommendations are also offered.

Meaning Making and Post-traumatic Growth

Chapter 4 explores the ways long-term survivors construct meaning from their experiences and how adversity promoted growth. It describes how women exhibit individual and collective efficacy when moving forward from abusive relationships and exert their own agency to structure long-term peace.

“Leaving the Horrible for the Not-So-Horrible”

Chapter 3 situates the women in their former abusive relationships, asking them to think retrospectively about the dynamics that contributed to their relationships termination. It explores women’s strategies of resistance and how these efforts facilitated long-term growth. It exposes the multiple and complex ways that women resisted the abuse and moved forward, despite the continuation of economic abuse, crises of faith, worry over children, and other obstacles.