In my master's thesis, I delved into the issue of violence against women with disabilities who have resided or are currently residing in 24-hour institutional care. The theoretical foundation was built upon the concepts of intersectionality, feminist theory, and the theory of total institutions. Women with disabilities experienced not only the violence prevalent in the general population, where they were disproportionately subjected to sexual and intimate partner violence as women, but also additional violence stemming from their disability. Women placed in total institutions were subjected to both overt and covert forms of violence perpetrated by these institutions through their operational mechanisms. The studied population occupied a multifaceted intersection of marginalized social positions, which significantly elevated their risk of experiencing violence.
The research focused on individual women's narratives and their experiences with violence within the context of their marginalized identities. The primary emphasis was on understanding how participants perceived violence at the convergence of these marginalized social groups. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The analysis employed a combination of deductive and inductive approaches. The final product was a grounded theory whose findings outline the occurrence of various types and forms of violence, coping with it, and an analysis of the subject matter through an intersectional perspective. According to the research findings, the most common type of violence is psychological and it most often occurs between users. Although several other types and forms of violence were identified. Based on the qualitative analysis of interviews, adopting an intersectional perspective was meaningful, as the findings indicate that occupying multiple marginalized positions (e.g., poverty, female gender, disability) correlates with a higher risk of experiencing violence.
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