Who Gets Out?

Abstract

This article applies a structuralist perspective on gender to investigate predictors of marital dissolution among men and women who are victimized by partner violence. Using panel data from the first and second waves of the National Survey of Families and Households, the study investigates the question of whether the differential positioning of heterosexual women and men in the structure of gender inequality affects their likelihood of getting out of two types of violent relationships—those characterized by minor/symmetrical violence and those characterized by severe/asymmetrical violence. Results indicate that the odds of leaving a violent relationship are affected by some indicators of structural gender inequality, particularly economic dependency, and that there are differences in the factors that predict dissolution between the two types of violence.