Women working in the shadow of violence: Studying the temporality of work and violence embeddedness (WAVE)

A temporality-based perspective could clarify the changes in the way employment is embedded in IPV and how the forms of such embeddedness is changing over time in ways that reflect survivors' accumulation of resources. Thus, we develop a Work and Violence Embeddedness (WAVE) analysis, based on insights drawn from three methodologies: Work history, life course theory and research on sensitive issues. Analyzing 33 in-depth interviews with IPV survivors, we follow labor market entries and exits, exploring the meaning of work in the shadows of violence through past incidents, current forms, scars incurred and future implications of violent behavior and two turning points. Utilizing WAVE elicited a social process by which employment is embedded in IPV to the extent that quality employment can be achieved once formal and informal support strengthen both the inner belief and confidence in economic activity; and, access to resources. We conclude that IPV survivors' experiences demonstrated the temporal concurrence of their employment lives and their exposure to IPV.