ABSTRACT
This chapter hypotheses that a woman's social network might constitute the intermediate structure between the subjective world of a troubled woman and the social, political, and economic institutions that uphold values and norms about women, marriage, the family, and violence. It assumes that the women had probably absorbed the dominant cultural values about women, marriage, the family, and violence. The chapter shows that these values would probably influence how a woman responded when she was beaten the first time. It reveals that these interacting values and various material factors would influence whether a woman escaped from or remained in the violent relationship. The chapter discusses focal questions: Why did the women stay as long as they did? And if the battering cycle always includes reconciliation, how regular are these reconciliations, what constitutes a reconciliation, and then, why do women eventually leave.
