Women's experiences of their partner's attendance at a Men for Non Violence programme : their stories and a discourse analysis : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University

Abstract

This study aims to report and analyse the texts of interviews with eleven women participants as they talk about their experience of their relationships during and after their partners' attendance at a Men For Non Violence (MFNV) programme. The women's partners, from whom they subsequently separated, had attended a MFNV programme while they were living together. Firstly, the women's stories of their private experience are summarised to provide new knowledges of the problem and in turn to be constitutive of a developing public understanding. Secondly, the commonalities in the women's experience, particularly in relation to the MFNV programme, are presented. Finally, a discourse analysis of the transcribed interviews illuminates the socially available linguistic resources used in common by the women in constituting their experiences and selves, with the effects and implications of these being discussed. The majority of the women reported temporary reductions in physical violence with associated increased levels of psychological violence from the time their partners attended a MFNV programme, which supports existing findings. The discourses available to and drawn on by the women reproduce and perpetuate men's non responsibility for their violence and maintain responsibility for women to end the violence, thereby reinforcing an ideology of male dominance.