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Going Underground: Conflicting Perspectives on Domestic Violence Shelter Practices

Portland State University, Oregon, haakenj{at}pdx.edu

Nan Yragui

Portland State University, Oregon, haakenj{at}pdx.edu

Feminism and the battered women's movement led to the creation of spaces of refuge for women experiencing domestic violence. The current practice of concealing the location of shelters has been questioned by many women of color, however, and some groups have created open shelters in their own communities. Beginning with a historical analysis of women's refuge, this article presents a study of practices of shelters in the United States based on interviews of directors or staff of state domestic violence coalitions. The multiple meanings of confidential location are explored, including tensions that emerge in mapping the boundary between shelter and the broader community. The concept of border tensions is introduced to identify key areas of conflict and the multiple meanings of shelter as social symbolic space. The article concludes that the concealing of shelters, while vital in some respects, has also been costly for the movement, and particularly for women of color.

Key Words: battered women's movement • border tensions • domestic violence • feminism • intersectionality • refuge • shelter • women of color

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