Aalborg University
Academic year 2011/2012
9th Semester Project of the Master Program on Development and
International Relations. Global Refugee Studies.
http://imemc.org/attachments/nov2010/a.jpg
Domestic Violence Against Women in
Ethnic Minority Families in Denmark
Project written by: Charlotte Bruun Thingholm
Supervisor: Vibeke Andersen
January 2012
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Content
1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………..……………….p. 1
2. Internship …………………………………………………………………………………………………p. 1
2.1. The Organisation………………………………………………………………………………….p. 1
2.2. Tasks ………………………………………………………………………..……………………….. p. 2
2.3. Internship Evaluation…………………………………………………………………………..p. 3
3. Methodology ……………………………………………………………………………………………..p. 4
3.1. Conceptualization of Violence ………………………………………………………………p. 6
4. Theoretical Framework ……………………………………………………………………………...p. 7
4.1. Ecological framework ………………………………………………………………………….p. 7
4.2. Bordieu’s masculine dominance ………………………………………….……………….p. 9
5. Analysis ……………………………………………………………………….………………………….. p. 10
5.1. Level 1: individual /personal history ……………………………………………..……p. 10
5.2. Level 2: Relationship / micro-system……………………………………………...……p. 11
5.3. Level 3 Community / exo-system ……………………………………………………..…p. 13
5.4. Level 4: Societal / macro-system …………………………………………………………p. 15
6. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………………………..… p. 17
7. Reference list ………………………………………………………………………………………….….19
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1 Introduction
Domestic violence against women takes place in all parts of the world (Lee & Shaw, 2011). In
Danish shelters housing women fleeing violence nearly fifty per cent have ethnic minority
background (Danner-Samsøe, Mørck, Sørensen, 2011, p. 3).
This project intends to analyse this issue by asking the question; why are nearly half
the women in shelters in Denmark having ethnic minority background? In order to answer this
question, this project uses the book ‘Family is Everything. Violence Against Women in Ethnic
Minority Families [Familien Betyder Alt. Vold mod Kvinder i Etniske Minoritetsfamilier] wherein
forty-two women fleeing domestic violence in ethnic minority families are interviewed (DannerSamsøe, Mørck, Sørensen, 2011). Ecological framework is used as a frame for the analysis; hence,
it is broken down into four levels. This is done to be able to take into account all aspects of the
women’s reality, both within the domestic sphere, the ethnic minority community and Danish
society at large and thereby better being able to comprehend the reasoning behind the women’s
decision to seek help at shelters.
Moreover, Bourdieu’s theory of masculine dominance is used to both to increase
understanding of the factors influencing the women within the domestic and the ethnic minority
community, and to critically asses how Danish society at large influences the women’s decisions
(Bourdieu, 2001). For the conclusion the result from all four levels of analysis will be drawn upon
in order answer the research question set out above. Nevertheless, before the above mentioned is
begun, a description of the internship in connection with which and the idea for this project was
conceived.
2 Internship
2.1The organisation
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) was established in 1951, just after the second
world war, along with many other United Nations (UN) institutions and organisations. The IOM is a
UN affiliated institutions and structured in the same way as most other UN institutions, yet, it is not
a UN mandated institution. This means that it does not receive a specific amount of money from
member states, instead, IOM uses ‘projectization’; meaning that it develops project and then search
for voluntary founding sources for these projects. The projects developed are manifold and diverse,
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ranging from conferences to the development of education material to very practical project in the
field (IOM; IOMA; IOMC).
IOM is the leading inter-governmental organisation (IGO) within the field of
migration ,with one hundred and forty-six member states and offices in more than a hundred
countries. IOM deals with all issues relating to all types of migration such as economic migrant as
well as refugees and internally displaced persons. Within these various setting IOM works both at
the request of governments, by seeking government founding for specific projects and in
partnership with other IGOs and non-governmental organisation (NGO). Furthermore, IOM also
seeks founding from private sources. This way ninety-three per cent of IOM’s budget comes from
voluntary contributions for projects, the remaining three percentages are member state fees. The
IOM Copenhagen office was established in 2009 and has the IOM office in Helsinki, Finland, as the
leading Regional Office. The IOM Headquarter is in Geneva (IOM; IOMB;).
2.2 Tasks
The Copenhagen IOM Office is a rather small office. In fact, in the period from September 5th to
December 30th when I was an intern at IOM Copenhagen, there was only one employee; Ms. Jenny
Svensson. This means that it was only Ms. Svensson and I working within the office. Ms. Svensson
was working with two projects, however, these projects had only received funding until end of
December 2011 and no new project had been granted founding for 2012. Consequently, new project
proposals had to be developed and submitted to possible donors for funding, otherwise the
Copenhagen Office would cease to exist, as it would simply run out of money.
Developing new project proposals became my main task. The first project proposal I
worked on was called “Engaging Religious Representatives as Integration Agents in Denmark”.
This project had been submitted for funding previously to the Danish Government but as elections
had just taken place in Denmark, the IOM Copenhagen Office had not received any response to the
request for funding. The project had been developed very large, with many activities to be
undertaken in order for it to fit the founding source intended. It was my task to re-structure the
project so it would be smaller and fewer activities were to be included. The purpose with the project
was to develop a three days education program for religious representative throughout Denmark. I
was involved in all aspects of the project development such as; writing the project proposal itself,
find information needed for the budget and submitting the project for funding.
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The second project proposal I developed was quite my own invention. During my
news monitory, which was a daily task of mine, I read many comments from social minister, Karen
Hækkerup regarding social control of youngsters, especially girls and young women, within ethnic
minority families in Denmark (Jyllands-posten). Furthermore, I saw that ‘Trygfonden’ (a rather
large private fund in Denmark) had an upcoming publication called “Family is Everything.
Violence Against Women in Ethnic Minority Families [Familien Betyder Alt. Vold mod Kvinder i
Etniske Minoritetsfamilier] (trygfonden). I suggested that I could read the book and then develop a
project that would build on the findings of the book. Ms. Svensson approved of my idea which
resulted in a project proposal called “Conference on Prevention of Violence Against Women”1. The
project proposal was submitted to ‘Trygfonden’ for funding upon finalization.
In addition to developing project proposals I did other tasks. As earlier mentioned, I
did news monitory every morning and reported to Ms. Svensson. In this connection, I reported on
the elections taking place during my internship period, I reported on the new ministers elected, their
background and on what they emphasized as important areas to focus on during their period in
government. This was important in order to be able to develop projects that would have a change of
receiving founding from the newly elected government. Furthermore, I updated the website for
IOM Copenhagen. A further task of mine was to keep track on new possibilities for founding and
match these with the project that had been developed by previous IOM staff and make sure that
when a match appeared, the project would be submitted for funding. Lastly, I supported Ms.
Svensson with minor administrative tasks and attended a couple of seminars relevant for IOM.
2.3 Internship evaluation
The reason I decided to apply for an internship with at IOM Copenhagen was that I found the work
of the organisation interesting and I was curious to find out if working within a UN affiliated IGO
might be something for me in the future.
The office was situated within the UN Headquarter in Denmark. This gave me the
opportunity to talk with people working within various departments of the UN. It was very
interesting both to hear employees tell about their job and to see how the behaved towards each
other in the common areas. I really enjoyed the professional and yet relaxed atmosphere. The IOM
office itself was, as earlier mentioned, rather small. However, Ms. Svensson very earlier on stated
that we had to try and keep a professional approach the tasks ahead of us and I completely agreed.
1
It was in this relation I read the book used in this current project.
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Therefore, we planned meetings and scheduled time for project evaluation etc. Even though was the
case, there was till a very friendly and open atmosphere in the office.
The majority of my time in the office was spent on developing of the two project
proposals described above. When I was given the task of developing the project proposal “Engaging
Religious Representatives as Integration Agents in Denmark” I was very excited. The reason for
this was that I had previously written a project on the religious representatives in relation to peace
building and I was still working on turning this project into an article for publication. Therefore, the
subject really interested me and I felt I had a perquisite for working with this issue. The second
project was also very interesting and I feel I really learned what it means to develop project
proposals. It is my impression that the experience I now have with developing projects as well as
updating websites, news monitoring, and report from seminars will be of great benefit for me later
in my career.
3 Methodology
Ontologically speaking this project takes a constructivist stance. Accordingly, the social world in is
constituted by constructed ideas. These ideas form the frame for any social interaction. Thus,
socially constructed ideas pose the reality in which individuals (social actors) function on a daily
basis. Moreover, this social reality is constantly molded through social interaction (Matthews and
Ross, 2010 p. 25; Somekh & Lewin, 2011, p. 321). The social actors analyzed in this project are the
women interviewed, and it is their social reality which is scrutinized.
Complementing this position, an interpretivist epistemological position is adopted in
this project as “it is a position that prioritizes people’s subjective interpretation and understanding
of social phenomena and their own actions…” (Matthews and Ross, 2010, p. 28;). Thus, it is the
subjective understanding of the interviewed women that is in focus. This is important to hold in
mind since their arguments and actions might seem odd from the perspective of ethnic Danes who
are born and raised in Denmark. It is therefore important to underline that the purpose of this paper
is not to judge if the women act and react correct in their situation but to improve our understand of
how they perceive their own reality and their framework for action. In other words, it is their
interpretation of their social really which is analyzed (Somekh & Lewin, 2011, 325..
The relation between primary and secondary material is rather unusual in this project.
In reality, no primary literature is used, however, a specific piece of literature is treated as primary
literature. This literature is the book “Family is Everything. Violence against Women in Ethnic
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Minority Families” [Familien betyder alt. Vold mod kvinder i etniske minoritetsfamilier] (DannerSamsøe, Mørck, Sørensen, 2011) (referred to as the “book” in the following), which is the result of
a three-year research project where three researchers (anthropologists) conducted forty-two
interviews with women who had been married to men from ethnic minority families living in
Denmark.
The “real” primary literature are the forty-two interviews, nevertheless, the reason
why it is possible (and defendable) to use part of this book as primary material in this project is that
the researchers repeatedly state that they try to stay as true as possible to the women’s stories (ibid,
p. 18). Even though this is the case, the book does not consist of forty-two interviews written out
one after another. Instead, the authors have arranged the interviews according to topics and themes
which appeared directly from working with the empirical material. This means that it is the material
presented in the book has not been analyzed using a theory but has simply been presented according
to topics and themes that naturally appeared from working through the material (ibid, p. 20).
The material thus consists of qualitative case studies (forty-two interviews) where
“each case is explored in detail and great depth“ (Matthews & Ross, 2010, p. 128). Such qualitative
case studies normally consist of a few rather than a large amount of cases (Blaxter, Hughes & Tight,
2001, p. 71). Thus, for dealing with qualitative case studies, forty-two cases is thus a rather large
amount and “this large amount of empirical material is unique not only in Denmark but in a Nordic
perspective [dette store emperiske material er enestående ikke bare i Danmark, men også I Nordisk
sammenhæng]” (Danner-Samsøe, Mørck, Sørensen, 2011, p. 15). Furthermore, the authors
themselves argue that “if we were to highlight the strength of the book it would precisely be the
presentation of the large amount of empirical material [Hvis vi skal fremhæve en styrke ved bogen,
er det netop præsentationen af det store emperiske materiale]” (ibid, p. 18).
This unique material would not otherwise have been possible to collect for this
specific project due to constraints on time and money. However, since the material is presented as
described above; as true to the women perspective and understanding of their situation and only
sorted according to topics and themes that naturally emerge from listening to the interviews, this
material is suitable for further in-depth theoretical analysis.
The purpose with the book was to examine if the services available to the women
suffice or if new initiatives are needed. Thus, 42 women were interviewed as well as people
working with the women in shelters and other relevant professionals both within and outside
Denmark (ibid, p. 13-15). However, as mentioned earlier, the material used for this project is solely
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the forty-two interviews. These women were all married to men with ethnic minority background
(not ethnic minority women who are married to ethnic Danish men) (ibid, p. 13). Interviews were
used as the method of collecting primary material by the researchers. The interviews were typically
started with the researchers asking the women to tell her story. She was thus able to do this without
being interrupted. This method was chosen to ensure that it was the women’s experience of
violence and her understanding of the episode that was revealed. The interviews each interview
lasted around two hours. The women were all interviewed once and all interviews except two were
recorded. An interpreter was used in six cases (ibid, 15-17).
Using this material as primary literature for analysis entail as number of advantages as
well as limitations. A clear advantage is that by using interviews, it is possible to get a holistic
picture of the violence. However, this also means that the material, which the researchers ended up
with, was vast and detailed (ibid, p. 17). Thus, the researchers had to make some decisions on what
was to be included in the book and what to exclude. This is a clear limitation as material that might
have been relevant for the purpose of this project potentially has been excluded from the book.
Further limitations are that there were issues which the women seemed to find
difficult to describe such as violence against their children, sexual violence in details and about the
children whom the women had been forced to leave behind to ‘buy themselves free’ of the violent
marriage (ibid, p. 18). Moreover, a limitation for both the book and this project is that the women
were promised anonymity. This puts limits to the presentation of the material as there is a constant
dilemma between revealing too much detail about the violence which put the women at risk of
being recognized while, at the same time, it is the detail which reveal much about the violence (ibid,
p. 21).
Regarding the women’s motivation for participating, the researchers state that the
women were not promised anything in return for their participation. Thus, the researchers were not
an easy ticket to extra social benefits and, therefore, the women had no reason to tell their story in a
certain way (ibid, p. 19). As the researchers state themselves, the stories are violent and heavy
reading but they argue that the women did not intentionally added to their stories. The researchers
seem to have come to the conclusion that the reason the women participated were simply that they
hoped that their honest contribution would support preventive measures and thereby help other
women dealing with violence (ibid, p. 18 - 19)
3.1 Conceptualization of violence
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It is necessary to find an appropriate definition of violence to be able to analyze what the women
are fleeing when they decide to go to shelters. However, there exist rather limited agreement as to
what should be included in a definition of violence both within and between different academic
disciplines. This problem is likewise evident in the academic discussion concern violence against
women (Winstok, 2007).
Most definitions focus is only on men’s violence against women, however, these
definitions are not appropriate to this project, as the intent is to include all individuals who commit
violence against the women interviewed and these include not only husbands but also fathers,
mothers, grandparents, and/or in-laws. The violence described by the women is only taking place
within the domestic sphere. Thus, this project utilizes the definition “domestic violence against
women”. This definition reveal that the violence takes place within the domestic sphere and that the
target of the violence is a women but leaves open for further inquiry the relation and identity of the
individual committing the violence (Winstok, 2007, p. 349; Kelly, 2011, p. E32).
As the authors of the book states, the prevailing overrepresentation of women from
ethnic minority families within Danish shelters indicate that there is a societal problem which is
worth examining in order to gain knowledge which can benefit the women (Danner-Samsøe,
Mørck, Sørensen, 2011, p. 33). This project is intended to support this process by adding to the
understanding of the women’s perception of their reality and why they choose to go to shelters.
4. Theoretical Framework
4.1 Ecological Framework
The analysis conducted in this project is framed in accordance with the social ecological model,
also called ecological framework or the ecological framework approach. Academics from various
disciplines have made use of ecological framework for a vide variety of purposes. When concerning
topics closely related to the topics of this paper such as gender-based violence or intimate partner
violence (IPV), several different research findings and theories have been integrated into one
comprehensive explanatory framework (Oetzel & Duran, 2004, p. 52; Dasgupta, 2002, p. 1371).
This project will make use of Bourdieu’s theory on masculine dominance (as will be explained
below) within ecological framework to reach a comprehensive answer to the research question of
this project.
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The reason behind the development of ecological framework is that, as Heise (1998)
so well asserts ”the task of theory building has been severely hampered by the narrowness of
traditional academic disciplines and by the tendency of both academics and activist to advance
single-factor theories rather than explanations that reflect the full complexity and messiness of real
life” (p. 262). In order to contain this ‘complexity and messiness’ ecological framework comprises
multiple levels of analysis thereby being able to address various different aspects within one single
framework (Oetzel & Duran, 2004, p. 52). There are four different level of analysis provided for
within ecological framework and each of these four level are shortly outlined and explained in
relation to the purpose of this project the following.
The first level is the individual level. At this level “demographic factors such as age,
education and income” are addressed (Kelly, 2011, p. E41; Dasgupta, 2002, p. 1371). Thus, at this
level the background of the women is analyzed, including their demographic region of origin and
their personal background such their upbringing and previous experiences with domestic violence
(if any). The second level is the level of relationships and is called the micro-system. At this level,
“the immediate context in which the abuse takes place” is analyzed (Heise, 1998, p. 264). Thus, at
this level the domestic situation in which the women find themselves at the time when abuse takes
place is analyzed, including an examination of the type of violence the women are exposed to as
well as the relationship between the women and the perpetrator(s).
The third level is the community level and is called the exo-system (Dasgupta, 2002,
p. 1371; Heise, 1998, p. 264). At this level, it is interesting to analyze how domestic violence
against women is perceived within the local ethnic community in Denmark. It is furthermore
interesting to examine how much belonging to a local ethnic community influences the women’s
decision on when and if to flee. The fourth level is the societal level and is also called the macrosystem (Dasgupta, 2002, p. 1371; Kelly, 2011, p. E42). This level “represents the general views and
attitudes that permeate the culture at large” Heise, 1998, p. 264). What is really interesting in this
project, since the focus is on a minority group, is that there is a significant difference between the
third and fourth level. The third level is the ethnic community in which the women function on a
daily basis, while the fourth level is the Danish society at large. It is interesting to examine how
these level influences each other.
In the analysis each of these levels are addressed in turn and within each level
Bourdieu’s theory of masculine dominance is included when appropriate, meaning that as the
analysis get richer and deeper, Bourdieu is increasing used. Thus, as the first level is rather
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descriptive (yet highly relevant for answering the research question) Bourdieu is not very much
used, however, already on the second level his theory adds depth to the analysis. In the following
Bourdieu’s theory is outlined and shortly explained.
4.2 Bourdieu’s Theory of Masculine Dominance
In Bourdieu’s theory of masculine dominance Bourdieu argues for the preposition that the European
and American society is still subject to masculine domination. He reasons that there exist an
arbitrary distinction between what is appropriate for men and women within society (i.e. in terms of
jobs, work within the domestic sphere, and schooling) and for what is appropriate behaviour for
men and women respectively (in sexual relationships for example). The problematique, however, is
that masculine domination becomes invisible to its members since it is the result of a long historical
process that makes the arbitrary appear natural (Bourdieu, 2001, pp. 1-5).
Thus, since masculine domination is invisible to the members of its society, it is
accepted as “a biological nature and becomes habitus, embodied social law” (ibid, p. 50).
Consequently, this arbitrary distinction becomes difficult to research as ”the grounding in nature of
the arbitrary division which underlies both reality and the representation of reality … sometimes
imposes itself even on scientific research” (ibid, p. 3).
The measure that Bourdieu employs in order to avoid this pitfall, i.e. being blind to
gender inequality still persistent, is to use the Kabyle society with its visible masculine domination,
which he terms ‘androcentric’, to make visible how an androcentric unconsciousness is still
prevalent within European and American societies today. Thus, he uses the Kabyle society as the
objective entity against which socio-analysis of the androcentric unconscious becomes available for
analysis (ibid, p. 5).
Bourdieu’s sharp analysis of both the Kabyle society and the current
European/American society is related to the women’s experiences of violence analysed in the
following chapter. The intention is to bring forward a critical analysis of the women’s experiences
with both the ethnic minority society and the Danish as both of these influences how the women
react to the violence they are exposed and, ultimately, on their decision to seek help at shelters.
Many other theories could have been used in this analysis, however, the reason
Bourdieu’s theory of masculine dominance has been chosen is that it provides the possibility of
being critical towards Danish society, thereby avoiding idealization. Thus, this theory will be used
when appropriate within ecological framework’s four levels of analysis.
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5 Analysis
5.1 Level 1: individual /personal history
At this first level of the ecological framework demographic factors are analysed. The focus is on the
origins of the women, on their personal history and on their education.
Of the forty-two women interviewed, two were ethnic Danes. The rest of the women
were having an ethnic minority background. Interestingly, the variation in terms of the demographic
origin of these women largely coincide with the general demographic origin of ethnic minority
women in shelters in Denmark. This means that the perception of these women on their situation
and the violence they are exposed to can actually provide insight into the general situation of ethnic
minority women in shelters in Denmark (Danner-Samsøe, Mørck, Sørensen, 2011, p. 46).
The large majority of the women have a Middle Eastern background (meaning that
either the women themselves came to Denmark from one of these countries or they are born and
raised by parents from these countries). The book as well as this project adopts a broad definition of
the Middle East covering the geographical area of Northern Africa to Turkey and the Arabic
speaking countries in Asia. Thirty of the interviewed women come from this area (ibid, p. 46-48).
Five of the interviewed women are from Eastern Europe as in accordance with the pre-1989
demarcation. Further three of the women come from West Africa and, lastly, two women come
from Sri Lanka. In total these women have their origin in seventeen different countries.
The women have very different personal histories and the following will attempt to
give a short overview of these women ‘personal luggage’. Eight of the women were born in
Denmark (including the two ethnic Danes) while ten came to Denmark when they were children or
youngsters. Twenty-one of the women came to Denmark following their husband. The women from
Eastern Europe all came to Denmark for work purposes and met their husbands in Denmark. Thus,
twenty-four of the women arrived in Denmark as adults whereas the remaining eighteen were born
and/or raised in Denmark (ibid, p. 46). Regarding their religious background, the majority of the
women from the Middle East were having a Muslim background while the majority of the rest of
the women were having a Christian background (ibid, p. 46- 48)
Just as the geographical origin of these women correlates with the general situation at
the shelters in Denmark so does the age of the women interviewed correlate with the general
distribution in age of women in shelters. The women’s age range from 19 as the youngest to 54 as
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the oldest. However, there is a general prominence of women at the age between twenty and thirtyfive (ibid, p. 46).
Approximately half of the women mentioned that they were exposed to violence in
their childhoods, the majority of these women were from the Middle East. Often they were
themselves victims of domestic violence as well as witnesses to violence against, often female,
family members, including their mothers (ibid, p. 60). Thus, some of the women have experiences
with violence before they entered into marriage, while for other women the violence started when
they got married (ibid, pp. 44-65).
In terms of education, the women do likewise have different experience. The women
from the Middle East were generally rather young when they got married and they were often not
able to obtain an education as they were forbidden to study by either their husband and/or their inlaws. The women from Western Africa and Eastern Europe generally were in their mid- to late
twenties when they were married and therefore had finished their education upon marriage (ibid, p.
48).
5.2 Level 2: Relationship / micro system
This second level of analysis deals with the domestic arena where the violence takes place. Thus, in
order to understand what they women are fleeing, it is necessary to examine what types of violence
the women are exposed to as well as whom the perpetrator(s) of violence are and when the women
decide to flee.
In most of the world (outside the West Europe and America) patriarchal family
structures (Bourdieu’s androcentrism) are still the norm and all the interviewees do describe a
patriarchal family structure (p. 136). According to Bourdieu, this means that masculine domination
explicitly rule social interaction and ”assigns to women their social status as objects” and thus, the
women belong to the men whom they marry; they become his property (Bourdieu, 2001, p. 43).
This helps explain some of the violence the interviewees are exposed to; being kept as house slaves,
no freedom of movement nor any say in personal economic matters. Other forms of violence are
forced marriages and lack of right to decide if, when, or how many children to have (DannerSamsøe, Mørck, Sørensen, 2011, pp. 65-88).
According to the antrocentric point of view and, more explicitly, according to
patriarchy, honour is an important element. Honour determines the symbolic value of the women
which depends
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on their reputation and especially their chastity – constituted as a fetishized measure
of masculine reputation, and therefore of the symbolic capital of the whole lineage –
the honour of the brothers or fathers, which induces a vigilance as attentive, and even
paranoid, as that of the husbands, is a form of enlightened self-interest (Bourdieu,
2001, p. 45)
It is also the case in the interviews that “the family and the man’s honour seems to play an
important role in relation to the violence the women are exposed to [Familien og mandens ære
synes at spille en stor rolle for, at disse kvinder udsættes for vold] (book, p. 49). Most explicitly, it
is stated by one of the interviewees that her husband calls her when she is sitting in a taxi on her
way to the shelter and tells her “you have to come home. You are my honour [Du skal komme
hjem. Du er min ære] (Danner-Samsøe, Mørck, Sørensen, 2011, p. 49).
Furthermore, according to the patriarch worldview ”manliness, virility, in its ethical
aspect, i.e. as the essence of the vir, virtus, the point of honour, remains indissociable, tacitly at
least, from physical virility, in particular through the attestation of sexual potency – deflowering of
the bride, abundant make offspring, etc. – which are expected of a ’real’ man” (Bourdieu, 2001, p.
12). Consequently, rape within the marriage is not possible. Many of the women are expected and
forced to have sex with their husband when and where he wants. An example of this is one of the
interviewees who tells who her husband raped her repeatedly for a week after they got married until
she was bleeding so much that he feared for her life, and together with her (the interviewees own)
mother, brought her to a hospital. Her mother does not support her in getting a divorce after this
incident (Danner-Samsøe, Mørck, Sørensen, 2011, pp. 77-82).
To sum up the above two sections, it seems that sex and pregnancy is strictly
forbidden for the women before marriage as the women would risk the honour of the entire family,
however, as soon as they get married sex and childbirth becomes a duty (ibid, p. 86).
The perpetrators are most often men, both fathers and husbands, but also uncles,
brother and even sons. Male perpetrators are most common in cases of domestic violence against
women in general (Lee & Shaw, 2011, p. 349-387). However, common for this material in the book
is that there very often are several perpetrators. Furthermore, there are also several cases where
women (often mothers or the mother-in-laws) are perpetrators of violence (ibid, p.112). This can be
explained by the patriarchal family structure where men always have power over women and elder
have power of the younger (meaning elder women have power over younger women such as
daughters or in-laws), thus they can legitimately use violence against them (ibid, p. 51).
14
Besides the types of violence described above, the women are exposed to physical
battering. They agree that the violence is used to make them behave in a certain way and for the
perpetrators to maintain dominance and control. Furthermore, violence is used as a preventive
measure to make sure the women do not behave in a way that would harm the honour of the family.
The risk of women, who are not kept in the right place, would do such harm is discernible as
“women, weak in themselves and a source of weakness, being the embodiment of vulnerability of
honor…” (Bourdieu, 2001, p. 51). Thus, both men and women use violence, in “enlightened selfinterest” as Bourdieu (2001) describes above (p. 45), to maintain the honour of the family and to
keep the patriarchal family structure intact (Danner-Samsøe, Mørck, Sørensen, 2011, pp. 52 - 319).
As earlier mentioned, the violence became part of the women lives at different stages,
for some it started when they were children or youngster and for others it started when they got
married or even late in married life. Common for all of these women is that the violence has been
part of their daily life for a long period of time. A consequence of this is that a normalization
process has taken place where the women slowly get use to violence (ibid, p. 66). It is therefore also
mostly the situations where the violence is especially extreme that the women tell about and when
they explain why they left, they use expression such as “’he was too violent’ or ‘it was too much’
implying that the daily ‘mild’ violence was acceptable [’han var for voldelig’ eller ’ der var for
meget’, underforstået, at den dagligdags og ’milde’ vold er ’rigtig’ nok] (ibid, p. 68, italics in
original)
It thus takes special occasion or reasons for the women to decide to leave. This is
often the case when the violence becomes so extreme that the women begin to fear for their lives.
Many of the women have had family members who have died from this type violence so their fear
has actualities behind them. The perpetrators are fully aware of this fear and use these examples
explicitly as examples of what might happen if the women do not obey them. Furthermore, some of
the women have stated they decided to leave when their children had got badly beaten or when the
children told their mother that it was time to leave (ibid, p. 60-70).
5.3 Level 3 Community / exosystem
At this third level the local ethnic minority community is analysed. The focus is on the perception
of domestic violence against women within the ethnic minority community and on the effect this
has on the women’s decision on whether to seeking help at shelters or not.
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According to the interviewees, the ethnic minority community is exercising a strong
pressure on women to conform with the normative order of the patriarchal family structure; they are
expected to get married and have children, especially sons (Danner-Samsøe, Mørck, Sørensen,
2011, p. 143). The patriarchal family structure leaves no room for women living alone; they belong
either to their natal family or to their husband and in-laws. A divorced woman thus represents an
anomaly and getting a divorce is highly stigmatizing. Furthermore, supporting a divorced woman is
no option for the extended family or friends as the gossip this would bring with it would be enough
to ruin the reputation of the individual as well as for the entire family (ibid, pp. 140-165).
The reason why divorced women are exorcized from the ethnic minority community
is because they become a treat to male domination, as Bourdieu (2001) vividly describes ”like
honor … it felt before others – manliness mush be validated by other men … and certified by
recognition of membership of the group of ’real men’” (p. 52). Thus, when a man is not able to
control his woman, he looses his manliness in the eyes of the rest of the community.
The lack of acceptance of the women’s decision to get divorced has led the women to
stay within the violent marriage for many years before deciding to flee. In most cases, after the
women have fled, the family has exorcized great pressure on the women to return to the violent
husband or the natal family to get re-married and thereby restore the patriarchal world order
(Danner-Samsøe, Mørck, Sørensen, 2011, p. 161). The local ethnic community does therefore only
in very few cases offer alternatives to shelters if the women decide to flee domestic violence.
As the decision to leave the violent family entails extremely high consequences both
for the woman fleeing and for her family (natal and in-law), the women sometimes attempt other
methods of escaping violence ranging from avoiding any type of confrontation and obey any
demands to attempted suicide and self-violence. Another measure that some of the women use to
escaping domestic violence within their natal family is getting married as quick as possible. The
women thus have tried to make use of any other thinkable way of escaping violence before deciding
to seek help at shelters (ibid, p. 88-97).
Of the forty-two women interviewed, twenty-five of them had children. Of these,
sixteen had one or two children and only few of them had four or more. According to the patriarchal
worldview children belong to their father. Consequently, five of the interviewed women have had to
leave some of their children with their ex-husband, often as a way of buying themselves free of the
marriage and it is mainly boys they have had to leave behind. The researcher of the book argues that
it is rather problematic that custody over children are used by violent men to make the women
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behave as they wish and punish them if they do not. Fear of loosing custody has thus also been a
factor that has led the women to stay instead of leaving. Possibly, this has also been a factor that has
led two of the women with four or more children to decide to continue living with domestic
violence from their husbands (ibid, p. 46-65).
5.4 Level 4: Societal / macro-system
At this fourth level the consequences of the women being situated in Denmark is analysed. The
main focus is on how the situation in Denmark regarding residence permits and on how gender
equality influences the women’s decisions on whether to seek help at shelters or not.
Questions and insecurities regarding residence permits are naturally only relevant in
relation to the twenty-four women who have arrived in Denmark as adults. For these women
continued stay in Denmark depends on their relationship with their husband. At the time of the
interviews being conducted six of the women are insecure on their ability to stay in Denmark and at
least one of the interviewees have subsequently been expelled (ibid, p. 46).
The husbands are very well aware of the power this gives them. One interviewee
argues that men treat their women much worse in Denmark because they have much more power
over them and she refers to residence permits as the source of this power. Several at the women tell
about how the man and his entire family show a very friendly face until they have entered marriage,
then the tome changes. Furthermore, they state that the violence begins from the day they ‘enter
into the trap’ (i.e. the marriage) [”… volden begynder den dag, de ’sidder i fælden’” ] (ibid, p. 66).
Withdrawal of the women’s right to reside in Denmark are explicitly used by the men as an
argument in favour of the women obeying their every demand, as one interviewee describes “’the
papers’ were mentioned every time they had an quarrel [’papirerne’ kom op hver gang de skændes]
(ibid, p. 121).
The women’s ability to avoid being exposed to domestic violence is thus limited
because of the rules regarding residence permit; they depend on a continued cohabitation with their
husbands and in some cases his entire family. As one interviewee describes, “women stay ‘the
entire period’ until they are secured permanent residence permits [bliver kvinderne ’tiden ud’, så de
er sikret permanent ophold], even though the violence started within their first year of marriage
(ibid, p. 58).
Another aspect of Danish society which influences the women’s decisions (explicitly
or implicitly) on whether to seek help at shelters or not is gender equality. In the following, the
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women’s own perception of gender equality in Denmark will firstly be examined and, secondly,
these perceptions will be analysed in relation to Bourdieu’s theory on masculine dominance.
For many of the interviewees who arrived to Denmark as adults, Danish society seems
much more gender equal than what is the case within the domestic sphere. In the women’s
perception the men do also consciously try to keep the women from integrating into Danish society
and becoming ‘too Danish’ as “…the men fear the woman would realize the freedom women have
in Denmark [manden frygter, at kvinden skal opdage den frihed, kvinder har i Danmark] (ibid, p.
59). The women generally argue that the use of physical violence as well as other types of violence
earlier described, such being kept as house slave, all is done with one result in mind “… to keep her
isolated from Danish society; to make sure she remained a stranger to life outside the domestic
sphere that way she would not get ideas [at holde hende isoleret fra det danske samfund; at sørge
for at hun forblev fremmed for livet uden for hjemmet, så hun ikke gik hen og fik ideer] (ibid, p.
120).
Eighteen of the interviewees were born and/or raised in Denmark (ibid, p. 46). These
women have been exposed to Danish society to various degrees. However, the women describes
that their family’s good reputation and honour within the local ethnic community depends on if they
are able to keep the women from becoming ‘too Danish’ or ‘too Western’ and several perpetrators
defends their use of violence with a comment on the women needing to be reminded of their ‘right
place’ (ibid, p. 149). In this relation it is interesting to notice that an ever increasing number of
young women with ethnic minority background contact shelters. The researcher who authored the
book argues that this fact “… could be interpreted as a positive sign that they no longer come to
terms with the hinterland’s (in relation to this project, hinterland refers to both second and third
level) control, exorcise of power and/or violence [kan også tolkes som et positivt tegn i den
forstand, at de ikke længere vil (af)finde sig med baglandets kontrol, magtudøvelse og/eller vold]
(ibid, p. 137).
The women and, according to the women interviewed, their husbands and/or family
perceive Danish society as having reach gender equality. However, according to Bourdieu’s theory
of masculine dominance, gender equality has not fully been reached (Bourdieu, 2001). The authors
of the book does argue that the patriarchal family structure (Bourdieu’s androcentric worldview)
has been the prevailing family structure in Denmark previously (Danner-Samsøe, Mørck, Sørensen,
2011, p. 141-142) and Bourdieu argues that an androcentric unconsciousness is still dominating
relations between men and women (Bourdieu, 2001 p. 21).
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An example Bourdieu uses to illustrate the androcentric unconsciousness at work is by
describing the bodily behaviour still anticipated by women; ”… armes crossed over the bosom, legs
together, closely tied garments – which, as many analysts have shown, is still expected of women in
European and American societies today” (Bourdieu, 2001, p. 16). Furthermore, in relation to sex the
androcentric unconsciousness is likewise dominating which can be seen in the way women perceive
sex as containing a wide range of activities such as embracing, caressing and touching whereas
“men are inclined to compartmentalize sexuality, which is conceived as an aggressive and
essentially physical act of conquest oriented towards penetration and orgasm” (Bourdieu, 2001, p.
20).
Additionally, according to Bourdieu’s theory of masculine dominance, working in
public (outside the house) is perceived as a masculine affair according to the androcentric
worldview and therefore not appropriate for women. However, when the women entered the
workplaces, gender segregation appeared where some type of jobs became “female” jobs whereas
others remained “male”. Thus, the type of work that was previously associated with the home, such
as caretaking, became “female” jobs. Bourdieu’s point is that, even though it seems as if there is
equality between the sexes in Denmark (both men and women on the job market), there is still
different perception on what is ‘appropriate’ for men and women. In Bordieu’s own words; ”…the
formal equality between men and women tends to disguise the fact that, other things being equal,
women always occupy less favoured positions” and, additionally, he points out that women are
always ”paid less than men” (Bourdieu, 2001, p. 92).
Bourdieu argues that the unconscious androcentric worldview result in symbolic
domination, or as he terms it ‘symbolic violence’, meaning that subtle gender inequalities still
prevail. For the women interviewed women this means that they have had to subjugate both implicit
symbolic and explicit male domination. An example of this is that the women who were educated in
Denmark were mainly educated within the social sectors (Danner-Samsøe, Mørck, Sørensen, 2011,
p. 44-60). Thus, there is thus still a long way to go before complete gender equality is reached and
violence against women, whether symbolic or actual, is completely abolished.
6. Conclusion
The interviewed women have very different backgrounds, yet, regarding the distribution of ethnic
minority background and age, these women correlate largely with the general the distribution of
women at shelter is Denmark (Danner-Samsøe, Mørck, Sørensen, 2011). Thus, the experiences of
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these women in relation to their decision on seeking help at shelters (or not) could actually say
something about the general situation of women at shelters and, thereby, answer the research
question posed at the outset of this project; why are nearly half the women in shelters in Denmark
having ethnic minority background?
Throughout this paper Bourdieu’s theory of masculine dominance has helped illustrate
how an explicit androcentric worldview has put severe limitations on the women’s freedom of
movement and on right to decide over their own body and sexuality, and on their ability to get an
education or have a professional work. Furthermore, the husband and his family does not refrain
from using physical violence against to women to make sure they behave as expected (in
accordance with the androcentric worldview). They do this even to the point where the women fear
for their lives (Bourdieu, 2001; Danner-Samsøe, Mørck, Sørensen, 2011).
Hence, due to the fact that the an explicit androcentric worldview is prevalent within
the ethnic community, the women are expelled by both close family, and the extended family and
friends when they decide to seek help at shelters. Moreover, the women risk loosing custody over
their children in the process. It is thus a costly affair for the women to seek help at shelters. Yet,
exactly because of this fact (that they are expelled by family and friends) that there seem to be no
alternatives than to seeking help at shelters if the women they decide to flee domestic violence
(Bourdieu, 2001; Danner-Samsøe, Mørck, Sørensen, 2011).
A further argument could be that precisely their ethnic minority background makes
them more prone to become victims of domestic violence. For some women the fact that their
ability to stay in Denmark depends on their continued cohabitation with their husband gives the
husband much more power over the women while, for other women, the families fear of the women
becoming too Danish makes them use more violence than would otherwise have been the case. On
the other hand, living in Denmark makes some women, especially young women born and/or raised
in Denmark, aware of the possibility of living with being subjugated an explicit androcentric
worldview. However, as Bourdieu argues, the women will still be subjugated an implicit symbolic
violence and thus still to some degree still be subject to male domination (Bourdieu, 2001; DannerSamsøe, Mørck, Sørensen, 2011).
There are thus many possible explanations on why nearly half of the women at
shelters in Denmark have ethnic minority background; an explicit androcentric worldview leaves
the women without alternatives to shelters and having an ethnic minority means that some women
might be more prone to become victims of domestic violence.
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