Domestic Economic Abuse: The Violence of Money PDF
Preview Domestic Economic Abuse: The Violence of Money
Domestic Economic Abuse Supriya Singh tells the stories of 12 Anglo-Celtic and Indian women in Australia who survived economic abuse. She describes the lived expe- rience of coercive control underlying economic abuse across cultures. Each story shows how the woman was trapped and lost her freedom because her husband denied her money, appropriated her assets, and sabotaged her ability to be in paid work. These stories are about silence, shame, and embarrassment that this could happen despite professional and graduate education. Some of the women were the main earners in their household. Women spoke of being afraid, of trying to leave, of losing their sense of self. Many suffered physical and mental ill-health, not knowing what would trigger the violence. Some attempted suicide. None of the women fully realised they were suffering family violence through economic abuse, whilst it was happening to them. The stories of Anglo-Celtic and Indian women show economic abuse is not associated with a specific system of money management and control. It is when the morality of money is betrayed that con- trol becomes coercive. Money as a medium of care then becomes a medium of abuse. The women’s stories demonstrate the importance of talking about money and relationships with future partners, across life stages and with their sons and daughters. The women saw this as an essential step for preventing and lessening economic abuse. A vital read for scholars of domestic abuse and family violence that will also be valuable for sociologists of money. Supriya Singh is a sociologist of money, migration and family. She is Honorary Professor at the Graduate School of Business and Law, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University. Routledge Advances in Sociology 316 Anxiety in Middle-Class America Sociology of Emotional Insecurity in Late Modernity Valérie de Courville Nicol 317 Boredom and Academic Work Mariusz Finkielsztein 318 The Emotions in the Classics of Sociology A Study in Social Theory Edited by Massimo Cerulo and Adrian Scribano 319 Emotions and Belonging in Forced Migration Syrian Refugees and Asylum Seekers Basem Mahmud 320 Languages and Social Cohesion A Transdisciplinary Literature Review Gabriela Meier and Simone Smala 321 The Social Construction of the US Academic Elite A Mixed Methods Study of Two Disciplines Stephanie Buyer 322 Domestic Economic Abuse The Violence of Money Supriya Singh For more information about this series, please visit: https://www. routledge.com/Routledge-Advances-in-Sociology/book-series/SE0511 Domestic Economic Abuse The Violence of Money Supriya Singh First published 2022 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2022 Supriya Singh The right of Supriya Singh to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-1-032-01430-2 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-01431-9 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-17860-6 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003178606 Typeset in Times New Roman by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd. This book is dedicated to the women who shared their stories. Contents Acknowledgements ix Preface xi 1 Introduction: Economic abuse is the untold story of family violence 1 2 Carol: The joint account becomes a medium of abuse 24 3 Ekta: The ‘good son’ sends her money to his parents 31 4 Rina: Dowry is economic, emotional and physical abuse 35 5 Geeta: He gave me coins, not notes 41 6 Karen: ‘I’ve been a single mother for most of my married life’ 46 7 Asha: ‘You now belong to my family and your money is mine’ 53 8 Chitra: He and his family abused her because she did not behave ‘like a good wife’ 58 9 Prema: He married her to get permanent residence 63 10 Betty: After he died she recognised it as economic abuse 70 viii Contents 11 Heer: She knew she should leave but was in a silent ‘cultural bind’ 77 12 Bala: A story of torture, survival and empowerment 84 13 Enid: Talking of money 90 14 Conclusion 98 Index 111 Acknowledgements My first and most important debt is to the women who agreed to tell and review their stories. The women relived their trauma, even when these stories were 20 years old. It was an act of courage. They trusted me with their experiences hoping some good may come of this telling. I would like to acknowledge my research partners Associate Professor Marg Liddell of RMIT University and Dr Jasvinder Sidhu of Federation University Australia. We researched ‘Money, Gender and Family Violence across Cultures’ 2016–2017, from which this narrative is drawn. I would also like to thank Marg for reading and commenting on the final draft. I also worked closely with Dr Rhonda Cumberland and Rachna Bowman of South East Community Links (SECL) that provides settlement support services for new migrant and refugee communities. I am indebted to Lyn Richards who has mentored me and read sev- eral drafts of this book and others since she supervised my Ph.D. some 30 years ago. For the last four years she has also heard me talk again and again of economic abuse. I thank her for our intellectual intimacy around the study of money and qualitative research. Margaret Jackson also heard me tell these stories without stop over our fortnightly coffee sessions. John Burke was the first reader of the initial draft and got me writing again when it had spluttered. I am also indebted to Marilyn McMahon and Paul McGorrery for our discus- sions on criminalising coercive control in Australia. I connected again with Carolyn Bond and Bernadette Pascoe from my early world in consumer finance in Australia. I also reached out to Jan Pahl about studying money and power and to Viviana Zelizer when writing of the morality and relational literacy of money. I shared some of the early drafts with Anita Anand, Mariel Beros, Glenis Henderson, Toni Magor, Pam Robinson, Dorothy Frei, Manjit Kaur and Shalu Nigam.
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