cultural context model: Therapy for couples with domestic violence, The

Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, Jul 1999 by Almeida, Rhea V, Durkin, Tracy

Intersectionality

Mainstream batterers' intervention programs and services for battered women have largely neglected the issue of intersectionality for women of color and immigrant women (Almeida, 1998; Narayan, 1997; Ritchie, 1996). Culturally sensitive, expanded definitions of both "battered woman" and "batterer" are necessary for ethical intervention. The intersection of gender, race, class, culture, and sexual orientation radically shapes the experiences of men who batter and women who are battered, whereby certain women and men are more entrapped within contexts of violence than others (Almeida, 1998; Almeida et al., 1994; Carrillo & Tello, 1998; Crenshaw, 1994; Cleague, 1997).

We have to dissect gender roles in all of their interlocking forms within the larger social context to fully comprehend male violence toward intimates. To interiorize the notion of "culture" without attending to the larger sociopolitical embeddedness is analogous to having conversations about internal family processes without descriptions of patriarchy-both deny the aspects of power that surround and exist within family life. A map to locate a cultural group and to delineate the experiences of men and women may look like this:

1. Immigration pattern - history with colonization/capitalism.

2. Racism/colonization.

3. Belief systems - religious/spiritual context of culture, that is Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and so on, and the role of gendered power structures in these systems.

4. Family pattern - role of men and women in family life; customs and traditions of culture that initiate men and women into various lifecycle stages, with a focus on how these transito,s heighten power differences.

Women as Culture Bearers

A primary goal of most domestic violence work to date has been the empowerment of women. Many men perceive this empowerment as a potential loss of their power in family and community life and, therefore, react to it as a threat. Part of the backlash against this has been men from diverse racial, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds expressing great concern over women's changing roles and the disintegration of culture. Women are placed in the role of culture bearers, responsible for family survival and the continuation of culture. Steeped in this legacy for women is the all-too-familiar dilemma of trying to maintain the cultural heritage for their children while not disenfranchising their partners in the face of adversity (Mernissi, 1994; Moraga, 1994). They are required to serve the patriarchy in form and ritual even if, as described above, those rituals are synonymous with violence. Given this impasse for women as culture bearers, it is imperative that strategies for change be directed toward two aims: empowering women and children to survive brutality within the interior of family life and dismantling oppressive practices culturally sanctioned for men (Almeida, 1998; Almeida, Woods, Messineo, & Font, 1998; Bepko, Almeida, Messineo, & Stevenson, 1998).

A Context for Change