‘Missingness’ and ‘being seen’ : paradoxes in the ‘practices’ of domestic violence in health

Olive, Philippa (2011) ‘Missingness’ and ‘being seen’ : paradoxes in the ‘practices’ of domestic violence in health. In: Lancaster University Sociology Department Annual Summer Conference, 2012-07-02 - 2012-07-03. (Unpublished)

Abstract

Violence(s) against women, operating in gender regimes have throughout time in different ways and to different degrees been rendered invisible. Feminist empiricist research has been successful in making visible the extent and connections of multiple forms of violence against women as a cause and consequence of gender inequality and contributor to women’s ill health. However, practices in statutory and civil bodies continue to render particular populations of women who experience violence invisible and ‘missing’ in data. My research is concerned with the construction of cases of ‘domestic violence’ in emergency department health settings, and in this paper, I approach my research from an understanding of gendered violence that recognises and problematises ‘missingness’. In explicating ‘violence against women’ through a lens of ‘missingness’ it becomes apparent that ‘missingness’, occurs and operates in multiple ways at multiple levels. This paper will explore the notion of and significance of ‘missingness’ in relation to my research of ‘domestic violence’ in the ‘Health’ context, addressing the paradoxes in health practices that conspire to render much ‘violence against women’ invisible in health settings along with the metaphorical, and sometimes problematic, paradox for women of ‘being seen’. ‘Missingness’ becomes stretched beyond practices to encompass systems that ‘miss’ connections and meaning of different forms of violence against women and in this way renders visible the reproduction of gender inequality within health systems.