school was meant to be the place of safety so I felt completely kicked in the teeth. I am still very
cross with school about that. There is this element that these things do not happen in middle
class homes. People do not really want to talk about it. Now I am pretty okay but I would like
people to realise that it is something that happens mostly at home rather than by some strange
person. It is a power relationship in the family setting that could go badly wrong. Can we stop
saying that it is the creepy stranger. It could be your brother or father and so on. Interviewee
17
Interviewee 16 had a negative experience with CAFCASS who got involved when she left
her partner and he was seeking contact with their children. She described a complete
lack of understanding of the violence and abuse her partner was perpetrating against her
and the children; the CAFCASS worker assigned to her “did not take my fears and
concerns seriously”. She also had a negative outcome in the courts where the judge
decided that contact arrangements should not take the domestic violence/abuse into
account. He said: “It does not matter what happened in the past, we are here to think
about the future”. Fortunately she contacted Women’s Aid who gave her details of a
solicitor who specialised in family law,which proved invaluable.
Impact on Rural and Urban Women
As stated previously there were no discernible differences between the urban and rural
women’s experiences of violence and abuse. All the interviewees were asked whether
they thought that violence against women affected women in rural areas differently to
those in urban areas. There were mixed responses to this question whereby Interviewee
2 stated that it is more difficult for women in rural areas because “everyone knows your
business” but then commented: “People in community settings are more supportive
whereas in towns, people would turn a blind eye and won’t care”. Interviewee 3, from a
rural area, also commented on the complexities of living in a rural area where “it would
be very difficult to hide bruises but it is very difficult to find adequate services”.
The main distinction drawn between rural and urban women was not in terms of
manifestations or levels of violence and abuse but in terms of isolation and lack of
services in rural areas including transport for women to use to reach existing services.
WI Campaigns on Violence Against Women Issues
Interviewees who were WI members were asked for their views on whether they thought
that it was important for the WI to campaign on violence against women issues. Some
of the answers to this question were extremely emphatic, for example, “absolutely the WI
should be campaigning on this issue”. Many stated that the WI was a key organisation in
which to campaign on the issue because of its established history, its women only
membership, and its breadth of members in terms of geographic distribution: “Yes I do.
They seem to have a big impact because they are a big organisation and they have been
going on for a long time, people seem to listen to them” (Interviewee 8). This sentiment
was echoed by Interviewee 12 who stated that: “I think it is important for every
organisation to get involved in this. But the WI even more because it is a women’s
organisation and we would have a better chance of having our voice heard”. Other
McCarry & Williamson, 2009 27
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