[as published in
the EWA Newsletter V.7 #1 - Winter 1996: The Impact of Funding Cutbacks on assaulted Women]Lack of economic independence is one of the main causes women cite for remaining in violent situations. (Alberta Advisory
Council on Women's Issues, 1995) Given this, we can expect that conditions that increase women's poverty--such as recent funding cutbacks to social programs in Ontario--will correspondingly increase the amount of
violence that women will be forced to endure. Tragically, some recent findings have illustrated this life-threatening trend in Ontario.
More Women Are Remaining with Abusive Partners
In August 1996,
OAITH (The Ontario Association of Interval & Transition Houses) surveyed 38 shelters in Ontario. They were asked questions about the impacts of the funding cutbacks on the women who used their
services. In this study, 66% of shelters cited cuts to social assistance as the deciding factor in women they have served's decisions to stay with abusive partners. Furthermore, 58% cited legal aid
cuts or inability to find a lawyer accepting a legal aid certificate, 45% cited housing cuts or lack of affordable housing, 40% cited child care subsidy or space reductions, and 21% cited cuts to language interpretation
service -- all as the deciding factor in women who have used shelter services' decisions to remain with an abusive partner.
More Women Are Returning to Abusive Partners
Similar to women who chose to remain
with abusive partners described above, women who returned to abusive partners cited cuts as major factors in their decisions. In OAITH's August 1996 survey, 38 women's shelters in Ontario reported that significant
numbers of women cited funding cuts as the deciding factor in their decision to return to abusive partners. The following social program cuts were cited in order of importance by shelters in residents' decisions to
return: social assistance reductions (63% of shelters cited); legal aid cuts or inability to find a lawyer accepting a legal aid certificate (54% of shelters cited); housing cuts (54% of shelters cited); child care
subsidy/space reductions (32% of shelters cited) and reduction in language interpretation services (15% of shelters cited).
Furthermore, the London Battered Women's Advocacy Centre conducted a client survey conducted
between October 1995 and April 1996. In this survey, they found that the percentage of women returning to live with an abuser rose from 20.6% to 33.3%, for a percentage increase of 12.7%. Of the women who
returned, 42% cited the social assistance cuts as the number one reason for their return.
In contrast to these studies, in a Statistics Canada study conducted in 1993--prior to recent social program
cuts--9% of women who returned to abusive partners because of lack of money or housing. Although these studies draw from different samples, recent trends in Ontario suggest a significant comparative increase in
women's decisions to return resulting from lack of money and affordable housing. This trend puts women in great danger This trend is
particularly frightening because the OAITH and London BWAC studies are drawn from women who use shelters, who are already at great risk. For example, in a 1993 Statistics Canada study, 80% of
assaulted women who have used shelters suffered an injury at some point in their relationship. Furthermore, 63% were injured enough to seek medical attention, and 85% had, at some point, feared
for their lives.
Clearly, the cuts to social programs that assaulted women rely on put more women than ever in dangerous and life-threatening situations
SOURCES:
- Ontario Association of Interval & Transition Houses.
- Locked In, Left Out: Impacts of the Progressive Conservative budget cuts and policy initiatives on abused women and their children in Ontario. Toronto, ON:
OAITH, November 1996 (see Resource page for their address)
- London Battered Women's Advocacy Centre. 1995/1996 Annual Report
- Karen Rodgers. "Wife Assault in Canada". Canadian Social Trends. (Autumn 1994), 2-8
- Karen Rodgers and Garry MacDonald. "Canada's Shelters for Abused Women". Canadian Social Trends. (Autumn 1994), 11-14
