Conceptualizing Greek Women's Resistance(s) through Their Narratives of Abuse by Their Male Partners: A Social Work Perspective

This thesis interrogates Greek women's narratives of abuse by their male partners informed by feminist narrative analysis. Drawing from relevant literature which views resistance as inevitable where oppression is present Greek women's narratives of abuse by their male partners are contextualized within the Greek social and cultural context. By analyzing Greek women's narratives common and different forms of resistance to abuse become evident which challenge depictions of women who have been abused by their male partners as pure victims and instead scrutinise their particular and located social and material conditions which shape the ways they manage abuse and narrate ways of resisting. Throughout my thesis my main argument has been that the Greek women I interviewed have narrated resistance(s) towards their partners' abuse and that these resistance(s) are contextualized, diverse and complex. By interpreting Greek women's coping strategies as resistance both women's strengths and the multiple constraints on women's agency posed by their social and cultural context are highlighted. A further argument is that in order for Greek women to unpack their resistance towards abuse and provide some critical understandings of their experience of abuse within which resistance occurs a theoretical context is needed which encompasses the ambivalence social progress and traditional values have generated. This theoretical context needs to consider structural inequalities and gender oppression as evident in women's narratives while at the same time being attentive to each woman's biography and complexity. A feminist-informed social work practice with women who have been abused by their male partners can redefine the problem by reference to the context of social power relations and deflect blame from women for their perceived victimization. When blame is deflected from women space is opened up for exploring women's strengths as feminist social work suggests.