According to two studies out of Australia women on average suffer worse (financially) than their male counterparts when exiting toxic relationships.
According to “The Choice: Violence or Poverty” by Anne Summers, of the women who had been in a relationship within the participant cohort, 22% had experienced some sort of violence. Segmenting further within this group, 60% of single mothers with children under 18 experienced physical violence and 70% reported emotional abuse. Regarding the single-mother group, Summers’ findings revealed roughly 50% currently lived in poverty relying heavily on government subsidies for day-to-day necessities.
Bruce Chapman and Matt Taylor dug further into the financial implications in “Partner Violence and the Financial Well-Being of Women: HILDA Research Results.” The Household Income and Labour Dynamics of Australia (HILDA) survey is a high-quality longitudinal data set that has followed approximately 19,000 people over 19 years (2002 to 2021). On the financial side, the drop in income for mothers who had experienced domestic violence post-separation is notable. After separating, the study’s average annual household income (the total of all income) plummeted by 34%. The fall in household income with separated mothers who were not subject to domestic violence also fell but by much less (~ $7,500). Salaries and wages of women were expected to increase after separation due to the necessity for work, yet the differences between those women who had experienced domestic violence and those who did not are again striking.
Chapman and Taylor found that the salary increase for those mothers who did not experience domestic violence jumped by 45%. However, wage increases were only 19% for mothers who lived through domestic violence. Childless women displayed similar findings. Those women separating from relationships where domestic violence was not evident experienced a 68% increase in their salaries and wages while women who suffered domestic violence registered just a 20% gain.
While the findings are intuitive in some respects, more research is needed. Data collection especially around health outcomes and education will contribute to the larger conversation and hopefully strengthen policy responses of governmental and non-governmental organizations. Quelling domestic violence is the goal but smarter and more strategic safety nets can certainly be implemented.
(domestic violence divorce lawyer, domestic violence and family law, family law domestic violence)
