• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Women Deserve Better

Women Deserve Better: For us, that means better information, better support, and better choices. Life brings challenges. We bring empowerment, because we’ll never underestimate women.

  • Work
    • Find a Job
    • Build a Career
    • Take Maternity Leave
    • Thrive As a Working Parent
    • Know Your Rights at Work
  • Learn
    • Earn Your Degree As a Parent
    • Know Your Rights on Campus
    • Finance Your Education
    • Medical Care for Student Moms
    • Housing for Student Parents
    • Child Care While You’re In Class
  • Live
    • Child Care
    • Feeding Your Family
    • Housing
    • Clothes
    • Medical Care
    • Getting Around
    • Money Matters
    • Special Needs
    • Fun
  • Love
    • Fathers
    • Your Parents
    • Adoption
    • Support Networks
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • Contributors
  • Shop
  • Support Us
  • Donate
  • Home

Do You Know the Signs of Intimate Partner Violence?

October 1, 2017 by Bethanie Ryan

Internet usage can possibly be monitored. If you need to exit this page quickly, close the tab or click “Women Deserve Better” in the upper left corner. To delete this webpage from your browser’s memory, go to your browser’s settings. If you need immediate help, call The Hotline 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or 911.

victim of intimate partner violence

If you are experiencing physical, emotional, financial, and sexual abuse from an intimate partner—or even threats—know that you deserve to be safe and free from it. Domestic violence, also known as intimate partner violence, is unfortunately common, affecting up to one in three women nationally.

Here are some questions to consider from The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence:

Does your partner…

  • Embarrass or make fun of you in front of friends or family? Put down your accomplishments or goals?
  • Make you feel like you are unable to make decisions? Use intimidation or threats to gain compliance?
  • Tell you that you are nothing without them?
  • Treat you roughly: grab, push, pinch, shove, or hit you? Threaten or abuse your pets?
  • Call you several times a night or show up to make sure you are where you said you would be?
  • Pressure you sexually for things you aren’t ready for?
  • Make you feel like there “is no way out” of the relationship?
  • Prevent you from doing things you want, like spending time with your friends or family?
  • Control you by controlling all household income and expenses, including assets that you brought into the relationship or earn on an ongoing basis?

Do you…

  • Sometimes feel scared of how your partner will act?
  • Constantly make excuses to other people for your partner’s behavior?
  • Believe that you can help your partner change if only you changed something about yourself?
  • Try not to do anything that would cause conflict or make your partner angry?
  • Feel like no matter what you do, your partner is never happy with you?
  • Always do what your partner wants you to do instead of what you want?
  • Stay with your partner because you are afraid of what your partner would do if you broke up or don’t know how you would support yourself or your children?
  • Fear that your partner would take your children or kill you and even your children?

It is important to learn the warning signs and take the following steps to ensure your safety.

You can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 (SAFE) to find local resources and safe shelters.

Remember, when one person scares, hurts, or continually puts down the other person, it is abuse.

Be aware that if your partner has access to guns, has choked or strangled you, has threatened to kill you or your children, or has threatened suicide, you could be in serious danger, and it is important to talk to a hotline advocate or 911 if it is happening immediately.

Gather all important documents for you and your child(ren), like IDs, Social Security cards, birth certificates, etc. Keep them near you and ready to grab quickly should you decide to leave.

Delete call records and internet histories that show you are seeking help, use an internet phone service so calls aren’t on your phone bill, or use devices that aren’t monitored.

Make up a “safety word” for you and your children and tell another support person, and arrange daily check-ins with her or him. A safety word can be a signal that it’s time to pack up and leave, or a support person can contact some help.

Remember: YOU deserve to be safe and free from violence.

By Joyce McCauley-Benner

Filed Under: Love, Support Networks Tagged With: domestic violence, intimate partner violence, sexual assault, signs, the hotline

Primary Sidebar

Suggested Articles

When You Don’t Feel Safe at Home

What to Do If You Have Been Sexually Assaulted

How to Get Help If You Are Being Trafficked

fb-share-icon

Footer

This message is only visible to admins.
PPCA Error: Due to Facebook API changes it is no longer possible to display a feed from a Facebook Page you are not an admin of. The Facebook feed below is not using a valid Access Token for this Facebook page and so has stopped updating.

neverunderestimatewomen

Check out "Learn the Basics of Unemployment Benefi Check out "Learn the Basics of Unemployment Benefits," courtesy of Women Deserve Better Expert and legal aid attorney Susan Schoppa.
https://www.womendeservebetter.com/learn-the-basics-of...

 #womendeservebetter
A woman out of work recently sent us the following A woman out of work recently sent us the following email. We wanted to share her thoughts with you:
The most common feelings I experience as an unemployed job seeker: 
1. Rejection/Sorrow. Something is wrong with me… because it cannot be that I don't have more than the required training or education or experience... so it must be me.
2. Anxiety from inadequacy of effort. Something would come along if I just tried harder (more than daily searches, weekly job clubs, outreaches on LinkedIn, etc.).
3. Aloneness. Other people with fewer skills, less education and experience… are getting jobs. They won't understand how alone I am in this. Other people must have a lot of resources to not have to work for this long, and I am barely making it and can't afford things now. I am alone in this.
4. Hopelessness. Scores of applications and letters to employers have gone unanswered for weeks and now months. What's the use?
5. Blaming myself and/or self-doubt. Why didn't I see the writing on the wall and find something while I still had a job? I guess I really am as stupid as these employers think I am.
6. Confusion. I am now out of my routine, so things don't fall into place like they once did. Am I getting dementia? Is this normal?
7. Anger. If my employer thought I was so great to give me a very good review several years in a row, why haven't they told me of other available jobs after this one ended? Shame on them!
8. Embarrassment. People may think I lost my job because I was a marginal or lazy employee. They don't know how hard I worked, and that the termination was due to issues not of my doing. They may see me as someone who deserved this.
9. Fear. What if I can't find a job in time before we lose our place to live?
10. Happiness. It can be a good thing to start over sometimes.
Have you ever felt like this woman? Please know that there is help. Check out our latest article on Women Deserve Better, "Find Help When You Can’t Find a Job":
https://www.womendeservebetter.com/find-help-when-

#WomenDeserveBetter
Are you struggling to pay your rent or mortgage? A Are you struggling to pay your rent or mortgage? Are you worried about losing your home? Here is some information about what could happen if you can't pay all of your rent or mortgage, courtesy of Women Deserve Better Expert and legal aid attorney Susan Schoppa.

www.womendeservebetter.com/how-to-find-legal-help-for-evictions-and-foreclosures 

#WomenDeserveBetter
Load More... Follow on Instagram
Thanks for signing up!

GET OUR LATEST NEWS

ABOUT

  • Our Mission
  • Contributors

SUPPORT US

  • Donate
  • Become a Partner
  • Share Your Story or Your Expertise
  • Promote Women Deserve Better

Women Deserve Better: For us, that means better information, better support, and better choices. Life brings challenges. We bring empowerment, because we’ll never underestimate women.

Copyright © 2021 — Feminists for Life of America • All rights reserved.