Economic Violence: The Effects on Employment and Welfare

Among other tactics aimed at gaining and maintaining control over his partner,
batterers commonly keep complete control of the family finances. In addition,
"[w]omen with greater economic dependence on their husbands experience a greater severity
of abuse compared to employed women who are abused."

"More than half of battered women surveyed stayed with their batterer because they did not
feel that they could support themselves and their children." Their belief was well justified:

• In 1997, full time working women earned only 74.9% of median earnings for men. Translated to annual earnings, where a man earned $30,000, a woman earned $22,500.
• In 1995, of American workers earning between $4.25 and $5.99 an hour, 67% - or 4.3 million - were women.
• In 1994, "14.1 million women over 18 were classified as living in poverty, compared with 8.6 million men. What this means, of course, is that an ever-increasing number of American children are growing up in poverty. In 1994, more than 15 million children lived below the poverty line. That was up from 13 million a decade before."

"Abuse is cited by 25% to 30% of battered women as the reason they lost their jobs."

"One Massachusetts court worker reported in 1992 that in four hundred cases in which she
helped women get restraining orders, only three judges ordered temporary financial support."
In 1996 in Addison County, Vermont, not one abuse victim's request for child support was referred to the magistrate.
It's no wonder why domestic violence is a prime reason why women turn to welfare.
"Officials at some battered women's shelters report from 60% to 95% of the women they help
spend some time on welfare as they struggle to recover from years of abuse."
A 1996 study of Welfare-to-Work programs found a prevalence of current or past
domestic violence among women enrolled in the programs from 30% to 75%.

A Massachusetts study comparing homeless and low-income housed (never homeless)
female heads of households between August 1992 and July 1995 found that:

• Only 8.4% of homeless mothers and 18.2% of housed mothers had not experienced some form of physical or sexual violence during their lifetime.
• Nearly two thirds had been severely physically assaulted by an intimate partner as adults. Severe violence was defined as being slapped 6 or more times; being kicked, bitten, or hit with a fist; being hit with an object; being beaten up; being choked, strangled, or smothered; being threatened or assaulted with a knife or gun; or having one's life threatened in another manner.
• 26.7% of homeless mothers and 19.5% of housed mothers reported having needed or received medical treatment as a result of physically aggressive actions by a male partner.