Is your relationship healthy?
Qualities of a Healthy Relationship
- Negotiation and Fairness: Seeking mutually satisfying resolutions to conflict, accepting change, being willing to compromise
- Non-Threatening Behavior: Talking and acting so the partner feels safe and comfortable expressing themselves and doing things
- Respect: Listening to the partner non-judgmentally, being emotionally affirming and understanding, valuing opinions
- Trust and Support: Supporting the partner’s goals in life, respect their right to their own feelings, friends, activities, and opinions
- Honesty and Accountability: Accepting responsibility for self, acknowledging past use of violence, admitting being wrong, communicating openly and truthfully
- Responsible Parenting: Sharing parental responsibilities, being a positive, non-violent role model for children
- Shared Responsibility: Mutually agreeing on a fair distribution of work, making family decisions together
- Economic Partnership: Making money decisions together, making sure both partners benefit from financial arrangements
Growing Strong Through Knowledge
It’s a problem that knows no social boundaries or class distinction. It affects thousands of women and families. And yet, domestic violence is one of the most misunderstood crimes in our country and often the least obvious. That’s why education is so important. It is the best defense against domestic violence – from identifying the signs, to understanding the cycle of abuse and the behavior of both the abuser and the victim. Only through understanding can we help families affected by domestic violence to fight back.
What is Domestic Violence?
A pattern of violence or intimidation in an intimate relationship by one intimate partner against another, designed to establish power and control over the victim. Domestic violence may be physical, sexual, and/or psychological abuse or assaults. We are working to remove domestic violence from our social customs and institutions. Some men believe they are entitled to use physical or sexual violence. Violence is seen as a way to create and maintain power and control.
Dynamics of Domestic Violence
Power and control are central to the issue of domestic violence. Tactics used to establish control include economic abuse, emotional abuse, isolation and threats, particularly around the woman’s fear of losing custody of the children. Other tactics are minimizing, denying, and refusing to take responsibility for his actions, e.g., “look what you made me do.”
Anyone can be a victim of domestic violence. If you are concerned about your relationship, please do not hesitate to call the YWCA crisis line