Provision and Exclusion

This article examines service provision to battered women in three Deep South states by presenting findings from qualitative interviews with executive directors of 44 agencies for battered women. Drawing on social conflict and social constructionist theories, the authors explored ways in which administrators make use of scarce resources, defining women as either appropriate or inappropriate for services. Women of color, lesbians, middle-class women, rural women, the homeless, the mentally ill, and elderly women were often viewed in stereotypical ways. Thus, agencies were not always responsive to their needs and, in some cases, excluded them entirely from shelter or other services.