Challenges Faced by Rural Battered Women
Rural Factors Impact a Battered Woman's Chances of Reaching Shelter
May 22, 2009
“On average, 40 women a year are killed by their male partners and ex-partners in this province, and that while the rate of killings of women by strangers has decreased, killing of women by their intimate partners has not,” says the 1997 Woman Killing report, a study of intimate femicide in Ontario.
Violence is a major factor in women's health and well-being. The measurable health-related costs of violence against women in Canada exceed $1.5 billion a year. These costs include short-term medical and dental treatment for injuries, long-term physical and psychological care, lost time at work, and use of transition homes and crisis centres (Woman Killing report).
Rural Factors can Greatly Impact a Battered Woman's Chances of Reaching Shelter
Rural abusers frequently isolate their partners as one tactic of maintaining power and control over their victims. They also commonly:
- Refuse access to family vehicles or prevent a woman from getting a driver's license.
- Ridicule her in front of friends and family.
- Accuse her of flirting or having affairs
- Remove the telephone when leaving the home or calling her every hour to monitor her whereabouts.
- Keep her bruised so she is ashamed to be seen in public.
- Threaten to kill her if she tells anyone.
- Usually no public transportation exists.
- Police and medical response to a call for help may take a long time.
- Rural areas have fewer resources for women--jobs, childcare, housing and health care,
- Extreme weather often exaggerates isolation--cold, snow, and mud regularly affect life in rural areas and may extend periods of isolation with an abuser.
- Poor roads prevent transportation.
- Seasonal work may mean months of unemployment on a regular basis and result in women being trapped with an abuser for long periods.
- Hunting weapons are common to rural homes and everyday tools like axes, chains, pitchforks, and mauls are potential weapons.
- A woman's bruises may fade or heal before she sees neighbors, and working with farm tools and equipment can provide an easy explanation for injuries.
- A family's finances are often tied up in land and equipment, so a woman thinking of ending a relationship faces an agonizing reality that she and her partner may lose the family farm or her partner will be left with no means of income.
- Rural women frequently have strong emotional ties to the land and to farm animals, and if she has an attachment to her animals she fears they may be neglected or harmed.
- Rural woman are usually an integral part of a family farm business, so if she leaves the business may fail.
In addition to the negative effects for women themselves, the violence women experience at the hands of their intimate partners can have profound effects on their children. Children who are exposed to violence in the home suffer from emotional trauma, have poor educational outcomes, and are at increased risk of using violence to solve problems
Abused women and their children are sometimes forced to visit food banks. They often have no money for clothing or transportation, dental care, fees on medical prescriptions or basic furniture. Some women must stay with violent partners because they are unable to provide for their children on welfare.
A Minority of Abused Women who are Assaulted call Police or Enter Criminal Courts
If women and children are to escape violence, they must have not only access to emergency and second stage shelters, but also a place to go. When they don't, they either return to abusive partners or end up in unsuitable, substandard and even unsafe housing. For women in shelters, time on housing waiting lists can range from three--four weeks, to up to one--five years. Average overall time on the list is 20 weeks (Woman Killing report).
Violence disrupts every part of women's and children's lives. Providing women with their own voice in the system is the direction that independent, community-based women's advocates be funded by government to support women throughout family and criminal systems.
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