In a previous post, I discussed the ways in which women who are in an abusive relationship can use their community resources to leave an that relationship. Also, a few weeks ago, I posted some links to other agencies in the Windsor area that promote the empowerment of women, that we have decided to blog about one social service agency a week that promotes the involvement and self empowerment of women in the Windsor and greater Essex County community.
This week, the agency that we have chosen is the Hiatus House. This social service agency offers confidential intervention for families who are experiencing domestic violence. It allows for women who have been abused to remain in a safe facility with their children until they can make a clearer decision on their new life. The Hiatus House also looks at these issues through a gendered lens and acknowledges that women can also abuse men, and abusive relationships can also occur within same sex couples.
Although I have never experienced an issue where I have had to take myself or a friend to this shelter, I have heard many great things about this social service agency.
I hope that by promoting their website on our blog, we can show others that there are resources in our community that can help women who have been abused by their partners.
I think it is very important to help someone that is in trouble when it comes to being in an abusive relationship. Teires I really enjoyed reading your blog because I think it is important to raise awareness to issues, such as this one. In today's society, everyday someone is either crying out for help or wanting advice to know what to do if they are in an abusive relationship. However, I believe that because organizations like Hiatus House is not promoted as often as it should be, people do not know where to go to get that help.
ReplyDeleteI personally have never been in a relationship where I was abused but that does not mean I shouldn't learn to prevent that from happening.I really think we should promote places like Hiatus House to make people aware that there somewhere they could go for help.
Teires,
ReplyDeleteThere are a number of strengths to grounding sisterhood in shared experience of oppression. First, it helps to name a problem. Sexual harassment was not identified as a problem until women started sharing their experiences in the work force and feelings of aggravation, irritation or misery. In fact, it was not until the late 1970s that sexual harassment was formally recognized as such. Women talking with women and sharing experiences played a large role in bringing it to public consciousness. Similarly, domestic violence, date rape, and gender discrimination all gained prominence once the experiences moved out of the private lives of individual women and were recognized as social problems.
Take the case of sexual harassment as an example. A woman in a white collar, high paying job, who is sexually harassed in the work place probably, has access to lawyers, counselors or psychologists to help her maintain her self-esteem and combat the injustice. a women in a low paying job that requires little trained skill will, in contrast, likely fear for her own job security and may hesitate to even report the harassment. she also would not likely have the disposable income to spend on lawyers and psychologists if she chose to report her experiences, she would rely on the good will of her employer- which is often absent, or if he is the harasser, impossible- and if the case went to court she would likely have to rely on legal aid or pro bono assistance of she was able to obtain it. Strategizing for feminist activism given such widely divergent experiences of oppression is very complicated. It is complicated even further when we realize that much of feminist theory and activism itself emerges from middle and upper class women and men. Some feminists might not even understand the complexity of problems facing women outside their class and race background.
I think Hiatus House is a great establishment to help women get their voice back.