Work and intimate partner violence: powerful role of work in the empowerment process for middle-class women in abusive relationships

Because middle-class women do not report intimate partner violence (IPV) due to social stigma, few interventions address their problems. In addition, there is a dearth of literature on the role of paid work in middle-class women's lives, as prior studies have focused on several ways IPV hinders women's work and job performance. This hermeneutic phenomenology study reveals that 10 middle-class women did not consciously enter into an empowerment process at work but experienced empowerment while performing job responsibilities. The paper explores how women contrast their IPV relationships with their work, in which they have access to resources, experience success, rediscover a sense of self and eventually make changes in their personal lives. Most importantly, this study argues that work plays a critical role in enabling these women to embark on the process of empowerment. Recognizing the interdependent nature of and positive spillover from work to personal issues can enable human resources practitioners and social workers to implement interventions with far-reaching benefits. Organizations need to increasingly focus on enabling a work culture that fosters empowerment, which has powerful social implications.