Examining Technology Use in the Lives of Women Experiencing and Escaping Intimate Partner Violence: Barriers and Possibilities

This study offers survivor-centered understandings of the relationship between intimate partner violence and digital technologies. Ten women survivors and 16 practitioners were interviewed individually. The study revealed that technology use was often ambiguous and frustrating, shaped by both perpetrators’ digital control and broader social and digital inequalities. The analysis also demonstrated a crucial transition from disconnection to engagement once women were out of violent relationships, reflecting their emerging needs and interests in using technologies. Overall, this research demonstrates how the intersection of online and offline barriers creates forms of coercion in women's lives and, in turn, shapes the boundaries of digital advocacy efforts.