STORMIGA RELATIONER OCH PÅSTÅDDA RÄDSLOR En kvalitativ studie om konstruktioner av kvinnan i vårdnadstvister där mannen utsätter kvinnan för våld

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine constructions of women in court orders concerning child custody where there has been information about domestic violence. With a discourse analysis of court orders from courts in Sweden we identified discourses. We wanted to examine what constructions of women are enabled by the identified discourses. The analysis was based on the discourses in Marianne Hesters (2011) three planet model; domestic violence planet, child protection planet and child contact planet. The results show that dominant discourses from all three planets are represented in the court orders’ constructions of women. Discourses from the child protection planet and the child contact planet are the most prominent in the material. The dominant discourse on the child protection planet make a construction of women as primary caregivers possible, which also including protection of the child as a responsibility. The construction of domestic violence as a conflict is also included in this discourse. The dominant discourse on the child contact planet enables to question the womens credibility and the construction of womens behavior as destroying the contact between father and child. Constructions of women from the dominant discourse on the domestic violence planet is most common in sections about responsibility for the violence. This enables a construction of women as victims and without responsibility for the violence. When this construction is represented it is marginalized by the dominant discourses from the child protection planet, and above all the child contact planet. The constructions of women as victims of violence and the acknowledgement of gendered violence therefore become insignificant in the court orders.