Résumé
"This study examined the intersections of gender-based violence, class and geography in a region of rural eastern Ontario using qualitative methodology and interviews with six women. The study was informed by feminist theory and incorporated aspects of participatory action research. It documented the resiliency of women in surviving abuse and finding safety, while facing the barriers that are often present when living in rural areas. Socio-cultural factors that were shown in the literature to increase women's vulnerability to violence were borne out by government statistics in the study areas, and signal the need for further funding, services and policy changes to address significant socioeconomic inequities that disproportionately affect women in these regions. The findings captured the importance of the counselling relationship to women in crisis, and chronicled ways that rural women's counsellors are indispensable for women's survival within a system that does not adequately protect their human rights."--Page ii.