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Women abuse : exploring women's narratives of violence and resistance in Mitchell's Plain

Bibliography: leaves 117-128.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Boonzaaier, Floretta
Other Authors: De la Rey, Cheryl
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Psychology 2015
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access_status_str Open Access
author Boonzaaier, Floretta
author2 De la Rey, Cheryl
author_browse Boonzaaier, Floretta
De la Rey, Cheryl
author_facet De la Rey, Cheryl
Boonzaaier, Floretta
author_sort Boonzaaier, Floretta
collection Thesis
description Bibliography: leaves 117-128.
format Thesis
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:52:20.006Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2015
publishDateRange 2015
publishDateSort 2015
publisher Department of Psychology
publisherStr Department of Psychology
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/13904 Women abuse : exploring women's narratives of violence and resistance in Mitchell's Plain Boonzaaier, Floretta De la Rey, Cheryl Research Psychology Bibliography: leaves 117-128. Woman abuse is a pervasive social problem and there is a paucity of South African research exploring women's experiences of violence. This study focused on how women endure abusive relationships by examining how women construct and give meaning to their experiences, within a particular socio-cultural context. Interviews were conducted with 15 participants who volunteered participation in response to advertisements. All research participants resided in Mitchell's Plain or surrounding areas. In-depth, narrative interviews were used to investigate women's experiences of violence from their partners. The interview topics included women's daily concerns and problems, their experiences of and responses to their partners' violence, and their feelings toward their partners and staying in the relationships. The interviews lasted approximately one to two hours and were tape-recorded and transcribed. The interview data was analysed by utilising a narrative approach, taking the content of women's stories into account. A close attention to language and discourse also shaped the analysis of women's narratives. In their narratives, women named their experiences of violation and abuse, explored the impact of abuse, and discussed their help-seeking attempts. Women also constructed particular gendered identities for themselves and their partners. Hegemonic gendered identities were sometimes adopted or resisted and reflected contradictory subjective experiences. This study showed how women in abusive relationships utilised a variety of strategies to end the violence in their lives and challenged constructions of women as passive victims of abuse. The meanings women attached to their experiences of abuse were filtered through the particular socio-cultural context (characterised by poverty and deprivation) within which their experiences occurred. An important contribution of this study was the acknowledgement that change occurred as a result of the abuse. Women named their experiences of abuse, questioned a husband's violence against his wife, and made connections between their experiences and those of other women, thereby shifting toward a gendered consciousness. 2015-09-14T18:08:14Z 2015-09-14T18:08:14Z 2001 Master Thesis Masters MA http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13904 eng application/pdf Department of Psychology Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Research Psychology
Boonzaaier, Floretta
Women abuse : exploring women's narratives of violence and resistance in Mitchell's Plain
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Women abuse : exploring women's narratives of violence and resistance in Mitchell's Plain
title_full Women abuse : exploring women's narratives of violence and resistance in Mitchell's Plain
title_fullStr Women abuse : exploring women's narratives of violence and resistance in Mitchell's Plain
title_full_unstemmed Women abuse : exploring women's narratives of violence and resistance in Mitchell's Plain
title_short Women abuse : exploring women's narratives of violence and resistance in Mitchell's Plain
title_sort women abuse exploring women s narratives of violence and resistance in mitchell s plain
topic Research Psychology
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13904
work_keys_str_mv AT boonzaaierfloretta womenabuseexploringwomensnarrativesofviolenceandresistanceinmitchellsplain