Ekonomiskt våld – det dagliga våldet som inte finns.

Sammanfattning: Authors: Emily Lundquist and Erica Johansson Title: Economic abuse – the daily abuse that does not exist Supervisor: Ulrika Levander Key words: Economic abuse; Violence against women; domestic violence; abuse; women. The purpose of this study was to clarify and distinguish the discourses form the attitudes of professionals in Sweden, who in their daily work come in contact with women exposed to economic abuse. In total, six qualitative interviews were conducted with four social workers working with economic-related matters within the social services, two representatives from a women’s shelter and personnel from municipal- economy advice bureau about their experiences of dealing with issues concerning economic abuse. The idea of the study emerged during a practice semester on an economic welfare social service in Southern Sweden, which uncovered that many married women did not have a bank account of their own and consequently welfare was transferred to the husband’s account instead. This was not problematized in the Social Service organisation. The study results imply that economic abuse generally is made invisible as a type of violence against women and therefore does not count as a social problem in the discourse. Moreover, we found two main subject positions and three identities in the way that an economic abused woman is constructed depending on her ethnic heritage. Foreign women from patriarchal societies, not born in Sweden, are constructed in the interview statements as especially exposed to this kind of violence while Swedish women are much more hold accountable for their economic actions. At last, we could also discover that women in need of help face these discourses about the “victimized woman” from the Social Service organisation. The woman and her situation may not fit into any of these roles, some roles also changing during the leaving process, implying that she may not receive adequate help to change her situation.