Marriage migration, patriarchal bargains, and wife abuse: a study of South Asian women.
This article contributes to the literature on wife abuse by using the patriarchal bargaining framework, which highlights the issue of agency as women strive to achieve their goals within the constraints of family and culture. Study participants were recent South Asian immigrants to the United States. Narrative analysis revealed that patriarchal constraints in natal families, culture, and expectations of benefits gained through marriage influenced many of the women to migrate for marriage. When husbands enforced extreme patriarchy with abuse, women's personal efforts to contain abuse were largely ineffective. However, advocacy agency interventions did help some women break out of extreme patriarchy.
Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA.
Soma
S
Chaudhuri
Merry
M
Morash
Julie
J
Yingling
D001208:Asia / Q000208:ethnology; D018585:Battered Women; D003469:Culture; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage; D011209:Power, Psychological; D013179:Spouse Abuse; D014481:United States
South Asia; domestic violence; patriarchal bargain