Views of Wife Abuse: Does the Research Method Make a Difference?

Abstract

This article explores the attitudes of service providers toward abused women and abusing men from the perspectives of masculine and feminine research. The masculine approach revealed widespread victim blaming among the respondents. The feminine approach revealed that, when given the opportunity to explore the problem at length, service providers avoided making judgments and worked at understanding and explaining the men's and women's behaviors. Thus, the feminine research method seems to be more appropriate for elucidating the complex realities in the lives of clients and the work of social workers.