Integrating Multiple Intersecting Identities: A Multicultural Conceptualization of the Power and Control Wheel

Abstract

For the past three decades intimate partner abuse has received growing attention as a major social problem with its roots in socially structured systemic inequalities. However, much of the intimate partner abuse literature lacks adequate attention to issues of diversity, and more specifically fails to address how structural underpinnings beyond gender shape women's experiences of intimate partner abuse. The primary purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of considering how various systems of oppression (e.g., heterosexism, agism, ableism, racism, spirituality/religion, classism, and sexism) shape the experiences of victims of intimate partner abuse. In particular, we address how these personal, cultural, and structural identities may individually or in combination influence women's experiences of intimate partner abuse. The literature on diverse identities and intimate partner abuse is reviewed, and a revised version of the commonly used Power and Control Wheel is presented, called the Multicultural Power and Control Wheel. Directions for future research and implications for practice are proposed with the hopes of initiating a dialogue among researchers and clinicians as to the most effective ways to serve victims of IPA.

KEYWORDS:

• Domestic violence
• intimate partner violence
• multicultural
• violence against women

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Christa Gutenberger for her expertise in graphic design. We would also like to express our gratitude to Stephen Quintana, John Harvey, Kimberly Nestler, and Jeff Hird for their valuable feedback. In addition, we would like to acknowledge the strength, courage, and spirit of victims and survivors of intimate partner abuse.

Notes

It is important to acknowledge that “gender” itself can be a complex term, and being transgendered can further complicate the experience of intimate partner violence (Turell, 2000).

While there is great within-group diversity in how women in same-sex relationships self-identify, for the sake of simplicity we use the term “lesbian” to refer to women in same-sex relationships.

While abuse among the elderly (65 years old and older) can include abuse by a wide range of caretakers, and one in five high school girls report dating abuse (Greenfeld et al, 1998), for the purpose of this paper (and in keeping with the original development of the Power and Control Wheel) we will highlight abuse in adult romantic relationships.

Similar to Pedersen (1991), we are using the term “multicultural” broadly to refer to demographic variables (e.g., age, sex), status variables (e.g., social, educational, economic), affiliations (formal and informal), as well as ethnographic variables (e.g., nationality, ethnicity, language, religion).