Hard Times for Women Living on the Edge: Economic Anxieties Send Domestic-Abuse Rates Soaring

By Nick Turse, Tomdispatch.com. Posted May 11, 2009.

"I'm already struggling to make ends meet. When it goes up to $2.50, how on God's green earth am I gonna make it? I don't know yet. But I'm really trying my best not to give up, not to throw in the towel and do the best I can for me and these three children." (In fact, the fare rise was only to $2.25, still ruinous for Tyrie.)

At night, when she tries to rest, her mind races. "I am not sleeping. I can't tell you the last night I really slept," she says.

"I don't know if they'll authorize me to get back my work permit. I really want to know because I need a second job. I can't live like this no more, ya know? The security people want me back, but if I don't have that card to give them, they don't want to take me back."

In fact, she's willing to do just about any work short of prostitution. "I'll wash dishes. I'll go clean any office. I will clean any bathroom. Anything, just to make the extra couple dollars. I'm not no prima donna."

'I Can't Crumble and Fall'

Tyrie's situation highlights the terrible bind that affects so many victims of domestic violence. Her husband was a danger to her, and yet, even with only irregular work, a second source of income in the family provided a small protection against the abyss.

Now he's gone, as is the abuse -- and the income. Gone as well is Tyrie's immigration security and with it her other job -- and now there are three more mouths in the house to feed.

Tyrie understandably chose to trade increased economic insecurity for personal safety, and as a result, her life threatens to crumble at any moment. For many domestic-violence survivors, however, the prospect of economic ruin is more terrifying than physical, emotional or sexual abuse.

"Studies have shown," Shugrue dos Santos tells me, "that it's difficult for domestic-violence survivors to leave for all sorts of reasons. Dependence on the batterer, emotionally and economically. And certainly we know that in a bad economy there are more obstacles for leaving. We know that there are fewer options for housing. The essential thing is: 'How am I going to feed my kids if I leave?' " If you're used to living on two incomes, she notes, the prospect of trying to survive on one can be daunting.

Tyrie made that hard choice and the consequences haven't been easy, but she credits her upbringing in Trinidad as instrumental in helping her to survive. She muses: "My momma had 10 kids back in the days, with my dad alone working. She showed us how to make ends meet, and I'm thankful for that, because now I'm in the situation. I have to make ends meet." It's in that spirit that she insists, "I can't crumble and fall. Nope. I have to face reality. There's people worse off than us, that's how I look at it."

Tyrie's story is increasingly typical of domestic-violence survivors now facing another terrifying form of abuse. Over the course of her life in the United States, she has suffered from many forms of mistreatment at the hands of her domestic partners. Now, free of that violence, she finds herself subjected to another form of mistreatment that may be even more difficult to escape: abuse at the hands of a government bureaucracy and a crumbling economic system.

Those combined forces are now punishing a woman who has always tried to play by their rules: following immigration statutes, working multiple jobs and raising her children.

Even today, she's still trying. "It's hitting me harder because of my status," she says of the economic crisis in regard to her immigration situation. But she still believes she can claw her way out of hardship with hard work.

"If I had my second job, I would have been OK."

[Note: The names of both women in this piece have been changed for obvious reasons.]

See more stories tagged with: class, gender, violence, hunger, abuse, poverty, domestic violence, poor women

Nick Turse is the associate editor and research director of Tom Dispatch. His first book, The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives, an exploration of the new military-corporate complex in America, was recently published by Metropolitan Books. Visit his Web site at nickturse.com.

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