by womensaidscot17 | Dec 3, 2021 | Uncategorised
There was once a time when promoting your service would have been putting a flyer in your local community centre or passing out leaflets during a coffee morning. While much of that is still in place, the pandemic has forced everybody to explore alternative ways of raising awareness of specialist support services.
When buildings were closed and services adapted to keep everybody safe in lockdown, we still had to find a way to reach survivors of domestic abuse. It was imperative that our communities knew Women’s Aid services were still open, still operating, and still here to help.
Some of our groups across the network were already active on social media, already sharing snippets of their work, sharing details of their service, and asking for donations. Others found this a strange world to navigate, let alone think about what to put on there. But it’s important to learn and experiment with social media, because it is a fantastic way of reaching people you wouldn’t ordinarily reach.
To put it in perspective, around 4.18 million people use Facebook in Scotland – how many of these are women who need your service? How many of these are women who don’t know such a service exists?
Here are a few things I’ve noticed is helpful for support services and Women’s Aid groups:
- Your social media page is your new shop window. People who come across your organisation for the first time now might do so through a search on Facebook. They might scan your page to get a sense of what you are about, what values you represent, what support you offer and how they can access it.
- You can position yourself as the experts – and you should. While we can all share photos of our dinners and Tweet about the weather, you can curate your online reputation. You can share details of your opening hours, job vacancies, support services and more. In fact, anything that reinforces the message that you are the specialists, you can share this online.
- You don’t have to be on all social media platforms. There are many different social media sites that you can sign up to but it’s worth thinking about what you can maintain and update, and where your audience sits. It’s better to pick one or two social media platforms to build an online presence on that to be signed up to everything and spread too thin to update anything.
As you are reading this, it’s likely you will have figured the above out, and it’s important to highlight here that it’s a learning process. You won’t know how to do all the things at once, but maybe you’ll know how to do Instagram Takeovers really well and so you focus on that. Or perhaps you’ve found a way to get people to interact on your Facebook posts and you see this directly linked to an increase in donations, and so you focus on that. What works for one charity might be different to what works for another, so it’s important to be open minded and experiment.
In my work with SWA Groups specifically, I’m learning that many are seeing the importance of communications and building your online presence. They’re beginning to see social media as a tool that they can use to get their message out: we’re still here to support survivors of domestic abuse.
In many cases, some don’t have a dedicated communications worker but perhaps instead a staff member with half an hour of their time dedicated to social media each week. As I mentioned during the Members Conference recently, we can do a lot with half an hour – sometimes we just need a plan.
More than ever, survivors are looking to social media platforms and other online platforms for support and information in crisis. Being able to support the Women’s Aid network across Scotland in making people aware of their services and awareness raising in a digital space, has allowed for the groups to focus on their core work. Making this process as streamlined as possible frees up time to do their essential frontline support and I look forward to furthering this on a national scale going into next year.
Annika Spalding is an independent Creative Consultant at Orsum, with direct experience in supporting and delivering charity communications.
If you feel scared of your partner or if you are worried about someone you know, get in touch with Scotland’s 24 hour Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Helpline on 0800 027 1234 email helpline@sdafmh.org.uk or visit sdafmh.org.uk.
by womensaidscot17 | Dec 1, 2021 | Uncategorised
Scottish Women’s Aid recently had the opportunity to have a conversation with East Ayrshire Council about their commissioning practice and how they have worked with local Women’s Aid services in shaping this practice.
“Commissioning shouldn’t be something done to services”
Paula Raymond, Contracts, Commissioning and Complaints Officer at East Ayrshire Council, told us why it is essential to have a holistic approach to commissioning specialist front line services.
East Ayrshire Council’s model to commissioning is built on collaboration and co-production.
Paula told us that it was vital to use the expertise of the Women’s Aid service and the women who access these vital services to build their commissioning framework – “women gave us a lot of good information that was incorporated into the service specification, collaborating shouldn’t be tokenistic”.
It was really clear that their practice is truly shaped with the experts in this area in mind – the services and those who access them. Paula spoke about focus groups ran with survivors:
“…collaboration and co-production, means better outcomes for women, children and young people.”
What Paula was told by the women in the focus groups is what went directly into the service specification and funding was secured for it. Women’s Aid services know from decades of experience building trust in communities, that survivors are less likely to trust statutory agencies. East Ayrshire Council have taken this into account and have instead asked the survivors and services directly: ‘what do you want?’ and ‘what can we deliver?’.
As a local authority, they have actually taken a leaf out of the Women’s Aid book and worked closely with grassroots organisations to help build trust. The Council wanted to take an approach that took them away from ‘traditional’ commissioning to one that was built on local partnerships and buy in at all levels of the Council. For these groups, they also included opportunities for local MSP’s to be involved, so that they could hear directly what is really needed in these communities from local authorities and officials.
Paula attributes this attitude in their practice to basing the principles on what they learned from “The Feeley Report” – an Independent Review of Adult Social Care in Scotland published earlier this year. It’s easy to see why, this report puts emphasis on listening to people who have lived experience at every level, building partnerships and creating a system with the people who use it[1].
With all the concerns that services across Scotland have about unpredictable and unstable funding structures, to hear from Paula that they worked to secure a five-year contract with the local group, is encouraging. Good commissioning practice is clearly in place in some local authorities and working. It begs the question as to why others aren’t following suit and providing specialist services what they need to give survivors life-saving support?
We are reminded by recent statistics released by Police Scotland[2], of the sheer enormity of domestic abuse in Scotland. We also know of the increased risk to survivors that has been ongoing since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic – as seen by the 4% increase in reports to the police compared to last year.[3]
Paula and East Ayrshire council show us that local authorities can work with specialist services to massively reduce risk to survivors of domestic abuse. Organisations in the third sector went “above and beyond” and “stepped up” when the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns happened. They adapted their ways of working extremely quickly to make sure that survivors were never without some form of support. It is crucial that during these periods of higher demand for support, that there is a strong connection between local authorities and support services.
It’s reassuring to see the work already in motion that is survivor-focussed. In a time where survivors are still feeling the impact of a global pandemic and the repercussions this had on risk and accessibility to support, this type of proactive, stable, commissioning practice is needed. Women’s Aid groups across Scotland are experts on how to provide what’s needed to women, children and young people in their own practices. Let’s keep building the trust that decades ago, provided the foundations for vital domestic abuse support services in Scotland.
This piece was written by Eilis Slater, External Affairs Officer for Scottish Women’s Aid, in collaboration with East Ayrshire Women’s Aid and East Ayrshire Council.
We’re calling to decision makers to make needs-based funding structures a priority for domestic abuse support services, join us by signing our open letter here.
For more information on good commissioning practice, we published a report alongside COSLA which can be viewed here.
If you feel scared of your partner or if you are worried about someone you know, get in touch with Scotland’s 24 hour Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Helpline on 0800 027 1234 email helpline@sdafmh.org.uk or visit sdafmh.org.uk.
[1] ‘Independent Review of Adult Social Care’, D. Feeley: https://www.gov.scot/groups/independent-review-of-adult-social-care/. Scottish Government Website, 3rd February 2021.
[2] ‘Domestic abuse recorded by the police in Scotland, 2020-2021’: https://www.gov.scot/news/domestic-abuse-recorded-by-the-police-in-scotland-2020-21/. Scottish Government Website, 30th November 2021.
[3] ‘Domestic abuse recorded by the police in Scotland, 2020-2021’: https://www.gov.scot/news/domestic-abuse-recorded-by-the-police-in-scotland-2020-21/. Scottish Government Website, 30th November 2021.
by womensaidscot17 | Aug 24, 2021 | Uncategorised
Blog post written by Elena Soper – YWCA Scotland
A new survey has today been launched by Young Women Rise, a research and digital campaign group led by 10 empowered diverse young women from across Scotland supported by Scottish Women’s Aid and YWCA Scotland – The Young Women’s Movement. This group have come together to research young women’s experiences of unhealthy relationships, domestic abuse and to research young women’s experiences of unhealthy relationships, domestic abuse and access to support. This survey will gather data on young women’s perceptions, awareness and understanding about domestic abuse, unhealthy relationships and existing support structures. The data will help Scottish Women’s Aid better understand young women’s experiences and support needs. The survey will be followed by focus groups later this year.
The survey is open to girls and women living in Scotland aged 12-25 until 5th October 2021 and can be accessed here.
You can find our Press Release on this here. For any media enquiries please contact our current External Affairs Officer, Eilis, by email: media@womensaid.scot.
If you feel scared of your partner or ex-partner, or if you are worried about someone you know, get in touch with Scotland’s 24-hour Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Helpline on 0800 027 1234 for support and information. You can also email and web chat from www.sdafmh.org.uk. There are translation and interpreting services available.
by womensaidscot17 | Aug 12, 2021 | Uncategorised
Content warning: this blog post contains description of domestic abuse. Please read with care – information on where to find support is listed at the end of this blog.
“Why doesn’t she just leave?” This question, frequently asked about women in violent and abusive relationships, is loaded with incomprehension and barely concealed frustration. The question also minimises women’s experiences of abuse and distances the questioner from its realities. Leaving an abusive relationship is not easy. This blog, the last in a series of six based on my oral history research into domestic abuse in post-war Scotland provide some insights into why women couldn’t just leave and why.
The previous blog in this series looked at police and social work responses to domestic abuse. It provided one side of a story and showed that women’s fears of seeking help from public agencies were not unfounded. What follows looks in more detail at why leaving was so difficult for women.
Fear was the dominant factor in the women’s lives. Fear of the consequences of their actions, inactions or words and the unpredictability of how these could be interpreted by the men they shared their lives with.
I was frightened of being hurt. I was frightened of his power… I was frightened that something would happen and I’ve never forgotten that, living in fear all the time.
I was completely fearful all the time because anything that I said could trigger a reaction.
With family privacy sacrosanct, approaching public agencies was out of the question, and remaining silent about the abuse was the only option. Living with the fear and reality of violence and the unknown consequences of public disclosure created a tight physical and psychological web around women held tightly in place by the debilitating physical and psychological impact of the abuse itself.
The physical impact of domestic abuse
Domestic abuse was the main cause of physical injury in the women’s lives and was a key factor in a range of physical and emotional symptoms they experienced. Some suffered serious facial injuries: black eyes, serious eye injuries, broken noses and chipped cheekbones were common. Two women needed substantial reconstructive facial surgery following severe assaults.
He beat me within an inch of my life and I believe, and I know, that if that neighbour hadn’t phoned the police that night I would have been dead. I was unrecognisable. The hospital had actually to slit my eyes open.
Some of the women developed long-term illnesses such as peritonitis; gallstones; auto-immune diseases. Others recalled being confined to bed for prolonged periods with undiagnosed illnesses, living with severe pain and extreme fatigue.
‘Constant, severe assaults cannot be endured without emotional effects. Chronic emotional distress is a normal, not an abnormal, reaction to this kind of treatment.’ [i] The women also described the cumulative impact of living with stress over many years.
The stress related stuff affects you. All I could do was lie in bed and cry for days. I was in agony and I couldn’t make the decision to phone a doctor or an ambulance… I just lay and cried and it was six weeks before I even saw a physio and I never got an X-Ray and as I say I’m still having problems with it.
Women experienced ‘cycles of violence’– repeating loops containing periods of calm almost companionate marriage followed by a build-up of tension leading to outbreaks of abuse and violence then remorse, apologies, contrition and another period of calm. This took a severe toll on women’s mental health.
I remember thinking ‘I’m losing my mind… he was nice last week, what’s he doing this week’?
You think you’re goin’ off yer head because there would be times when he would be horrible and then he would be making up. He was like Jekyll and Hyde,
The women were unable to make sense of what was happening, saw no logic in it and with no opportunity to discuss it with others, they internalised it.
I internalised it, as I suppose a lot of people do. I mean you either go one way or another, you either go out and you’re angry with the world or you internalise it.
Internalisation involved absorbing the shame as the men chipped away at their self-esteem. A great deal of the abusive rhetoric was focussed on the women’s behaviour, domestic work, their appearance and competence.
At first I started to actually hate my mother ‘cos… she’s no tellt me how tae cook. Then I began to feel absolutely worthless. Then I went very into myself, I was a nervous wreck, I was a bag of nerves.
It’s the things that they do to your self-esteem they just tell ye how useless ye are.
This is all my fault and I’m an idiot… I felt let down by my feelings. I felt devastated.
The women felt ashamed and ended up blaming themselves for what was happening.
His insults relentlessly and systematically were aimed at keeping me where I was ‘cos I was ashamed.
Because you couldnae tell anybody, yer thinking it’s all your fault, you’re just trying to survive …Am Ah imagining this? Whit is it Ah’ve actually done? It was just, things were just… getting worse and worse. When you are in that you don’t think… I think you’re just lost.
All of the women experienced mental health symptoms including depression, severe anxiety, low self-esteem, nightmares and flashbacks but were often at pains to understand what was going on.
I really suffered depression but I didnae seek help for it because I didnae know what it was.
Women’s sense of disempowerment was profound. Their decision-making and personal agency were greatly reduced as their husbands’/partners’ assessment of them penetrated deep into the psyche.
I was emotionally and psychologically destroyed. I didn’t see the fact that I was being persuaded to give up my identity.
Psychologically it was really weird because there were times when I felt I was outside of myself, observing myself and, and disgusted at what I was doing.
These recollections of the traumatic impact of the abuse provide us with glimpses into the psychological struggles women had to overcome before they could even contemplate separation. Those who approached their GPs for their mental health symptoms did not disclose the abuse in their lives and were prescribed anti-depressants, beta-blockers and tranquillisers without further inquiry about their situation. Only one disclosed to her GP who was supportive and offered her counselling.
Steps to Freedom – Stages of Change
Women’s descriptions of the leaving their relationships corresponds almost exactly to the stages of change described by Procasta and DiClemente: pre-contemplation, contemplation, determination, action, maintenance. [ii] For many years, the women endured the violence and abuse and its impact on them in the hope that it would eventually end. Over time, when this did not happen and the endless cycles of violence continued, they gradually gave up hope and began to contemplate leaving.
I think there comes a time when you just know that it’s right to do it. I am not putting up with this anymore.
Yeah, it was constant escape, how would I do that? So I guess it was kinda subconscious but then I think it became more conscious.
The idea of an alternative future free of violence for themselves and their children gradually emerged as a possibility. Seeing the impact on their children was a powerful motivator for many of the women.
I’ve always had a good relationship with my children and that’s why I had to go. I knew that day that I had to protect them. And I didnae care how I was going to do it. That day, I just knew.
The women were now working in better paid jobs, some had careers, were developing interests outside the home and were becoming aware of the contrast between their home lives and the kind of lives they could be living. However, Scottish society by the 1980s and 1990s still did not look kindly on divorced or separated women or those bringing up children on their own. Permanent separation demanded careful planning and the management of a complex range of issues. The reaction of family and friends to the separation also had to be managed. Most risky of all was the post-separation pressure and threats from their ex-husbands/ex-partners. Then as now, separation can be very dangerous for women as violent men begin to lose control.
Stories of survival and recovery
The women in my study created carefully constructed long-term exit plans. The process of separation took time, years in some cases, and many of the women made several attempts before finally succeeding. Whilst coping and managing the long-term traumatic impact of domestic abuse and the strain of keeping their plans hidden from their husbands/partners, the women faced a range of practical obstacles to successful separation. There was a chronic shortage of decent, secure, affordable housing and ensuring they could support themselves and their children was not easy especially with little or no financial support for the children from their husbands. The women also had to disentangle themselves from the family economy and its debts, juggle work, childcare and school hours as well as facing continued abuse and harassment by their ex-husbands/partners. However all of the women in my study succeeded in leaving – eventually – with the help of a small group of trusted friends and family with whom they shared their plans and without approaching an agency for help.
Women leaving an abusive relationship in the late twentieth century therefore faced a range of emotional, psychological, social, economic and practical hurdles on their way to a free, independent and safe life. Overcoming these obstacles took courage, careful planning, time, help from others and access to a range of resources.
Post Script
I hope these accounts have gone some way to answering the question, Why doesn’t she just leave? Ending an intimate relationship at any time is never easy. Leaving a violent relationship in late twentieth century Scotland was especially hard due to the social attitudes and hostility which abused women faced. Although times have changed, domestic abuse is still with us. Women contemplating separation today still face daunting challenges and risks, which require the same determination, courage, planning and support. Leaving is never a one-off decision or event, then or now. However, nowadays women need not do it alone and can reach out to free helplines and support services in every area of Scotland. Social attitudes, agencies and the legal environment in the twenty-first century are much more informed, knowledgeable, sympathetic and skilled in how they support and advocate for women and children affected by domestic abuse. That much has changed for the better.
When I interviewed the women, their abusive relationships were well in the past and they were living independent, safe and contented lives. Their stories of abuse, survival and recovery in late twentieth century Scotland are truly inspirational. I thank them all for their honesty and courage sharing their life stories with me so willingly and for revisiting some deeply distressing memories. It was a privilege to bear witness to their personal histories. I have shared my findings in these blogs and elsewhere* in tribute to them and to contribute their stories to our knowledge about Scotland’s recent past.
*This research is featured in the BBC Radio Scotland Time Travels Podcast ‘Women, Witchcraft and Violence’.
Dr Anni Donaldson
Twitter: @AnniDonaldson
Website: www.glasgowanni.com
If you feel scared of your partner or ex-partner, or if you are worried about someone you know, get in touch with Scotland’s 24-hour Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Helpline on 0800 027 1234 for support and information. You can also email and web chat from www.sdafmh.org.uk. There are translation and interpreting services available.
[i] Mullender, A. (1996). Rethinking domestic violence: The social work and probation response, Routledge. P.23
[ii] Prochaska, J. O. and DiClemente, C. C. (1982). “Transtheoretical therapy: Toward a more integrative model of change.” Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice 19(3): 276-288.
by womensaidscot17 | Aug 12, 2021 | Uncategorised
Content warning: this blog post contains discussion of domestic abuse. Please read with care – information on where to find support is listed at the end of this blog.
Police Scotland recorded 63,000 incidents of domestic abuse in 2019/2020 with women making up the majority of victims – the highest figure in twenty years.[i] However, researchers continue to estimate that it is widely under-reported and that the true extent remains unknown. The under-reporting of domestic abuse is not new. The 1988 Scottish Crime Survey of crimes not known to the police found that domestic abuse was common, gendered with under-reporting likely to be common: women were the victims in a third of all violent incidents, a quarter of which happened in the home; 80% of offenders were male; with 40% of offenders either husband/ex-husband, current/former boyfriend, a male relative or other male member of the household.[ii] Women’s reasons for not reporting was a key focus for my oral history research into domestic abuse in post-war Scotland. Answers were found in the narratives of women survivors, police, social work and voluntary sector professionals. Women’s reluctance and fear of approaching public agencies was mirrored in professional practices which were largely hostile to them. Moreover, these had remained largely unchanged from the 1960s until the 1990s and were compounded by a long-standing mistrust of the police and social workers in many Scottish working class communities.
Even that night when I did fear for my life…I never thought about phoning the police. (Woman survivor 1980s)
I don’t remember women ever calling on their own behalf. (Police officer 1980s)
Nobody calls the police. Nobody ever called the police. (Woman describing 1970s)
The previous blogs in this series have provided evidence that late twentieth century Scotland was still a highly patriarchal society in its laws, religion, education, social and economic policy, employment, and social norms. The patriarchal male provider/female homemaker family structure was woven into the British post-war welfare state. Customs protecting family privacy remained strong. Women ‘made their beds’ and what went on between couples behind closed doors was no one else’s business. Police and social workers were reluctant to intervene when men were violent towards their wives/partners; attitudes were also characterised by anti-women bias and blame with violence ‘a rational, if not legitimate, aggression, when it is used to chastise a wayward wife’. [iii] Interventions aimed to keep couples together and maintain the family as an economic unit. Investigations were reserved for cases of severe violence, murder or where children were being harmed.
Policing domestic abuse
Police forces in Scotland turn a blind eye to wife beating. Police attitudes to domestic violence were very unfortunate, both from the point of view of the women involved and for society as a whole. It seemed that Scots lived in a society which accepted the use of violence by a husband against his wife.
Dr Rebecca Dobash quoted in The Scotsman 6/11/77.
The Parliamentary Select Committee on Violence in Marriage – 1975, recommended that ‘Chief Constables review the police approach to domestic violence’. However, I found evidence that the police response to violence against wives remained minimal, consistent and unchanged from the 1960s until the late 1980s.
Domestic abuse lacked the recognition of the serious nature of what it was at that time. It was an epidemic. (Police officer 1980s).
In the 1980s, police training in non-interference was standard,
“See before we go in here son? This is between a man and a woman and we’re no’ getting involved in this.” That was actually before we arrived at the front door. Aye keep it in your own house, keep it private, this is what you do (Police officer 1980s).
The preservation of family privacy in front-line policing reflected policy and practice in the criminal justice system more widely.
Leave it alone, it’s a private family matter.”…it was kind of “better not, it was up to them to sort it out”. (Civil Servant, Scottish Office Justice Dept. 1970s)
Causal links were also drawn between alcohol and ‘wife beating’ with repeat visits considered a tiresome and timewasting feature of working class life. One criminal justice social worker recalled being told by police officers in the 1980s,
“We’re fed up going to this address every Saturday night. He comes home, she calls the police, we go, both drunk and then Monday morning she comes and says she wants to change her mind or we take him away and keep him in the cells overnight…what good are we doing and how much good public money is being wasted here?”
The attitudes of individual officers were also important,
We have observed the unhelpfulness of police when called into a battering situation. Things seem to hinge on the attitude of the officer involved, and the way he [sic] chooses to make use of the power he [sic] has. It would help if women were recommended to WA by police on the spot, but this seldom occurs.
(SWA Annual Report 1980)
Police officers minimised their interventions in ‘domestics’ and focussed instead on stopping couples fighting, reducing the impact of drinking and restoring calm. Men were verbally reprimanded, often removed temporarily, and released without charge. Violent husbands could be provoked into assaulting the officers then charged with breach of the peace – a ‘stairheid breach’[iv].
I was fighting with this guy and him lying on top of me and I’ve got his hands behind his back and I’m saying to my neighbour “Cuff him!”. That was a domestic incident an’ he was getting arrested in effect because he lashed out at us when we arrived.
Domestic abuse cases remained a low priority for police in Scotland into the 1980s with investigations reserved for cases of ‘severe’ violence, murder or where children were being harmed.
In the eighties, we were chasing drug dealers and guns and robbers and Starsky and Hutch an’ a’ that stuff… I was in the CID pretty young… I didnae want tae go tae domestics. (Police officer 1980s).
For women, reporting to the police made their experiences public and was also regarded as shameful, a waste of time and could lead to violent reprisals by aggrieved husbands.
They’d lock him up for the night but he was always back in the morning, fighting furious because I’d shopped him. (Woman survivor 1960s)
Women’s lack of knowledge of the Scots legal system and the requirement for corroboration, made prosecution difficult while successful convictions, fines and imprisonment could leave women financially disadvantaged and stigmatised. Women often withdrew their complaints.
A particularly violent case, which included medical evidence of severe injury, did not proceed further because the accused’s wife had to identify her assailant in court. She never spoke up and it got kicked into touch. He waved tae us in the court. I always remember him waving to us. (Police officer 1980s)
The police and criminal justice system remained male-dominated professions into the late 20th century despite the provisions of the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act.
There were still calendars up on the wall… it was quite misogynist there’s no doubt about that aw aye. (Police officer 1980s+)
Sexist attitudes permeated all levels of the criminal justice system and often trivialised male violence against women.
Some of these women might well deserve the batterings they get from their husbands.
Nicholas Fairbairn Scotland’s Solicitor General 1979-1982
With no policies to address domestic abuse perpetrated by their own staff, there were times where fellow police officers dealt with the matter unofficially.
Male colleagues of a woman officer whose officer husband was violent towards her took matters into their own hands and four of the senior cops went up and leathered him. (Police officer 1970s+)
Signs of change emerged in the late 1980s. Following the Glasgow Rape Case (1980), studies[v] found that police responses to women reporting sexual assault were belligerent with an institutional presumption that the complainer was falsifying facts. In an effort to address this, Female & Child Units (FACU) were established in every police division to deal with incidents of rape and sexual assault, indecent exposure, cot deaths, wife assaults, child cruelty, missing persons and absconders. In a radical departure, the units were: ‘staffed by specially trained female officers who assist both CID and uniform personnel in the investigation of crime and incidents involving women and children and emphasised the support needs of women and child victims’.
Social work responses to domestic abuse
As soon as you mentioned social work… that was it, you wouldn’t have seen that woman again.
(Women’s Aid Worker – Scotland 1980s)
Women’s fear of social work involvement in their lives in late twentieth century Scotland was neither uncommon nor unfounded.
Until it was overhauled by The Social Work (Scotland) Act of 1968, social work was the responsibility of a number of voluntary sector agencies, parish/church organisations and municipal authorities. The Royal Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (RSSPCC) for example, had an extensive national network of Inspectors -‘Cruelty Men’. Interventions were designed to support the patriarchal family, prevent family breakup and creating an additional financial burden on the public purse. By the 1960s, a new vision of social work emerged influenced by contemporary sociological and class-based analyses of society. The Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 broadened the purpose of social work in Scotland beyond a focus on poor and working class families, and undertook to ‘promote social welfare‘ across whole communities. Social work education was professionalised and new local and national government organisational structures and accountability mechanisms were introduced. However there is evidence that the legacy of class-based, patriarchal attitudes to marriage and domestic abuse in social work practice continued into the late 1980s.
Like the police, social workers regarded domestic abuse as a private matter strongly linked to excess drinking and violence in working class communities with solutions clearly focussed on preserving family unity.
The focus of the work, the meetings and everything we had was to try and reconcile the family, but the focus of the work was definitely around her alcohol consumption. Unwittingly we were overlooking the fact that her alcohol consumption might be related to the life she was living. We weren’t ignoring it but we were overlooking it. (Social worker 1980s)
I was a newly qualified social worker and was taken to task by my Senior for supporting this young woman to have left her violent partner because marriage was a special institution and I shouldn’t have been encouraging this young woman to be leaving her marriage behind. (Social worker 1980s)
. Women faced a hostile social work response,
The social work response in those days were really, really punitive and was almost about policing the household. If this man was thought to be dangerous, then it was this woman’s responsibility to keep her children safe and at that time the piece of legislation of the Children’s Act, the grounds for referral to the Reporter, would have been about a failure to protect. So women not only had been beaten and abused but were then accused of failing to protect their children and sometimes that was used in a very directive way. Women were faced with a treacherous double bind. It’s every woman’s nightmare, she’s been assaulted by her husband, hit by plates and we’re gonnae take that child off her into care unless she leaves this man.
(Social worker 1980s+)
Direct interventions with abusive husbands and fathers were largely confined to severe cases and threats to remove the children from the home. Carried out by senior social workers in some cases, these could be hyper-masculine, highly punitive and often aggressive.
The manager would speak to the perpetrator and say, “enough’s enough, this has got to stop, we’re watching you. If this continues…”. And there was always a kind of a veiled threat of “We’ll be taking these children away, we can’t put up with that.” I wouldn’t say it was as strong as machismo, but there was certainly a degree of eh… masculinity it was like ‘you’d better stop that.’ That was the approach, it was terrible to say that but it was. (Social worker 1980s+)
Social workers had extensive statutory powers of intervention. However, deep-seated nervousness around family privacy and challenging male dominance in the home compounded by a lack of training prevented workers from directly asking about domestic abuse even when they were aware that it was going on.
I had discomfort about asking that direct question. That discomfort came from a notion of intruding in someone’s private life – I didn’t feel comfortable about it; and also the idea I suppose that the person might be experiencing a bit of shame and by opening up that dialogue I suppose some of us felt that we were eh…it was easier, it was easier to say “are you ok?” and leave it at that. (Social worker 1980s)
My research showed that Scottish police and social work retained a role in enforcing patriarchal norms until the 1990s. Their lack of effective intervention and prevention in cases of domestic abuse played an important role in the private and public oppression of Scottish women and upheld the dominant role of men in the family. Professionals’ reluctance to intervene, their indifference and often hostility to the plight of abused women did nothing to encourage women to seek help. For women, the twofold dangers of reporting – from their husbands and from public authorities – ensured women’s continued silence.
Signs of change
By the early 1990s signs of a change in the public mood and in professional responses to domestic abuse began to emerge. In addition to the introduction of Police FACUs in 1987 there was increased media attention on the lives of ‘battered women’ due to the campaigning of the Scottish Women’s Liberation and Women’s Aid Movements. The recommendations of the Select Committee on VAW back in 1975 on the need for women’s refuges led to an expansion of the national network of refuges in Scotland in the 1980s through public funding. Women’s Aid groups and Scottish Women’s Aid employed dedicated workers focussed on improving legal, policy and practice responses to women and children experiencing domestic abuse. Research by the Dobashes’ in 1970s contributed to academic and professional understanding of the nature and extent of the problem and the shortcomings of legal, policy and practice responses. Their work also informed the creation in the 1980s of Scotland’s first court-mandated group-work programmes for domestic abuse perpetrators. In 1992 the first public domestic abuse prevention campaign was launched by Edinburgh City Council and was very quickly replicated nationwide. In the final decade of the twentieth century, the Zero Tolerance campaign marked a turning point in Scotland’s long domestic abuse story.
This is the fifth in a series of essays being posted in spring and summer 2021 to accompany a webinar series hosted by Scottish Women’s Aid during April and May 2021. The final essay in the series:
- Why she didn’t just leave. Getting free – the impact of domestic abuse and leaving an abusive relationship in the c1960-1990.
*This research is also featured in the BBC Radio Scotland Time Travels Podcast ‘Women, Witchcraft and Violence’.
Dr Anni Donaldson
Twitter: @AnniDonaldson
Website: www.glasgowanni.com
If you feel scared of your partner or ex-partner, or if you are worried about someone you know, get in touch with Scotland’s 24-hour Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Helpline on 0800 027 1234 for support and information. You can also email and web chat from www.sdafmh.org.uk. There are translation and interpreting services available.
[i] https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/19390267.domestic-abuse-incidents-recorded-police-scotland-reach-shameful-20-year-high/
[ii] Kinsey, R. (1992). Crime and the quality of life : public perceptions and experiences of crime in Scotland : findings from the 1988 British Crime Survey. Edinburgh], Edinburgh : Scottish Office, Central Research Unit.
[iii] Maynard, M. (1985). “The response of social workers to domestic violence.” In Pahl, J. (1985), Private Violence and Public Policy: The Needs of Battered Women and the Response of the Public Services.
[iv] ‘Stairheid’ – colloquial pronunciation of ‘stair-head’ in the west of Scotland, the landing outside flats in tenement properties. ‘Breach’ – short for ‘Breach of the peace’ an offence in Scots law.
[v] Chambers, G. A. and Millar, A. R. (1983). Investigating sexual assault. Edinburgh, Edinburgh Scottish Office, Central Research Unit.
Chambers, G. A. and Millar, A. R. (1986). Prosecuting sexual assault. Edinburgh, H.M.S.O. for the Scottish Office Central Research Unit.
