”Jag fick verkligen skrika på hjälp"

– våldsutsatta kvinnors överlevnadsarbete innan, under och efter vistelsen i skyddat boende

Abstract

”I actually had to scream for help” – abused women’s survival work before, during and after their shelter stay

In this interview study, we apply institutional ethnography and the ‘generous’ concept of work to analyse the survival work of ten women who have stayed in domestic violence shelters due to male partner violence. The analysis shows that survival work - the work the women do to gain access to protection and support - can take many forms. For instance, in order to access a shelter, women had to navigate the fragmented organisation of social services and articulate their experiences of violence to a range of different caseworkers. Once in a shelter, the women tried to manage and make sense of the safety rules they encountered. Moreover, they worked to increase their autonomy and freedom by trying to bridge the safety restrictions without jeopardizing the protection provided by the shelter. During the shelter stay, the women also worked to gain access to psychosocial support. The pursuit of support continued after leaving the shelter; with the purpose of establishing a new life in the municipality. This included the work to protect themselves from further violence.