Rural Battered Women
Battered
women living in rural areas have many of the same experiences as battered women
everywhere. But rural battered women have certain experiences and face certain
barriers that are unique to rural settings.
Batterers
commonly isolate their victims as one tactic of maintaining power and control
over their victims. They frequently:
- Refuse
access to family vehicles or prevent a woman from getting a driver's
license;
- Ridicule
her in front of friends and family so that she's reluctant to have them
come to her home;
- Accuse
her of flirting or having affairs and because of this suspicion, beating
her for even limited contact with another person;
- Remove
the telephone when leaving the home or calling her every hour to monitor
her whereabouts;
- Threaten
or beat her when she returns from an outing with friends or family;
- Threaten
to kill her if she tells anyone about the abuse.
A
woman isolated in these ways has a difficult time escaping from a violent
partner. She fears leaving. She fears asking someone for help. Battered women
everywhere experience some form of isolation as controlled by their partner,
but for rural battered women the isolation becomes magnified by geographical
isolation. Other rural factors can have an impact on a rural battered woman's
isolation and changes of safe shelter. Consider that:
- A
rural battered woman may not have phone service;
- Usually
no public transportation exists, so if she leaves she must use a family
vehicle;
- Police
and medical response to a call may be a long time in arriving;
- Rural
areas have fewer resources available to women--jobs, childcare, housing,
and health care. Easy access to these resources is limited by distance;
- Extreme
weather conditions often exaggerate isolation--cold, snow, and mud
regularly affect life in rural areas and may extend periods of isolation
with an abuser;
- Poor
roads thwart transportation;
- Seasonal
work may mean months of unemployment on a regular basis and result in
women being trapped with an abuser for long periods of time;
- Hunting
weapons are common to rural homes and everyday tools like axes, chains,
mauls, and pitchforks are also potential weapons;
- Alcohol
(and drug) use, which often increases in winter months when rural people
are underemployed and isolated in their homes, can affect the frequency
and everity of abuse;
- There
may not be a battered women's program nearby and getting help may require
traveling a great distance. Traveling to the "big city" to get
help can be intimidating to rural battered women and city attitudes may
seem strange and unaccepting of her ways;
- A
woman's bruises may fade or heal before she sees a neighbor, and working
with farm tools and equipment can provide an easy explanation of her
injuries;
- Farm
families are often one-income families and a woman frequently has no money
of her own to support herself and her children;
- A
family's finances are often tied up in land or equipment, so a woman
thinking of ending a relationship may face the agonizing reality that she
and her partner may lose the family farm or her partner will be left with
no means of income;
- Court
orders restraining an abuser from having a contact with a woman are less
viable for rural women because their partners cannot be kept away from the
farm if it their only source 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 may fear that her
animals will be neglected or harmed if she leaves;
- Rural
women are usually an integral part of a family farm business, so if she
leaves the business may fail.
Rural
battered women have unique problems, but alternatives to living without abuse
do exist. A battered women's program can provide personal support, safety
planning for you and your children, information about options available to you,
transportation, legal information, safe shelter, and referrals to financial
assistance, job training, and education options.
Get
Help and Find Safety