This thesis identifies discourses of women leaving abusive male partners by examining the works on the matter by famous IPVAW researchers Viveka Enander, Carin Holmberg, and Margareta Hydén. Using discourse analysis, and thus a social constructivist approach, I have studied how the researchers explain women’s leaving processes and the resistance associated with those by drawing on the theories of Normalization of Violence and Neutralization of Violence respectively. Further, this thesis examines both what women are included in the research studies and how women leaving their abusive partners are portrayed in the material. By using an intersectional perspective, I explore who is missing from the research material and what impact their absence might have. I argue that discourses have an impact on people’s lived realities, thus who is depicted as a victim of abuse by being included as a subject in research is highly important. In short, the findings draw attention to how researchers within the same field provide different modes of explanation and thus comes to different conclusions based on the theories chosen for the study, ultimately leading to that they (re)produce different discourses which create a discursive struggle. The thesis also highlights the necessity of including an intersectional framework when researching women exposed to violence.

Kvinnojourer i Sverige utför varje dag ett viktigt arbete med att hjälpa våldsutsatta kvinnor. Denna studie syftade till att undersöka de som arbetar på kvinnojourers erfarenheter kring våldsutsatta kvinnors uppbrottsprocesser och om dessa erfarenheter har ändrat deras arbetssätt med att hjälpa andra våldsutsatta kvinnor. Två frågeställningar användes för att besvara syftet där den första berörde kvinnors uppbrottsprocesser och den andra jourernas arbete. Utförandet av studien underbyggs av att det råder en kunskapslucka kring just detta område. I studien genomfördes semistrukturerade intervjuer med nio anställda på olika kvinnojourer i Sverige. En tematisk analys gjordes för att analysera den insamlade datan, för att sedan identifiera kodord som bildades till teman. Åtta teman bildades; omgivning, stöd, kunskap, yttre faktorer, kvinnan, kunskap, support och individuella faktorer. Resultatet visade att enligt kvinnojourerna är det individuellt varför en kvinna lämnar en våldsam relation men de främsta orsakerna är när barn eller omgivning drabbas, att våldet eskalerar eller att kvinnan helt enkelt fått nog. De ansåg även att erfarenheter och kunskap kring kvinnors uppbrottsprocesser har en inverkan på hur de arbetar med andra utsatta kvinnor. / Women's shelters in Sweden perform every day an important job of helping abused women. This study aims to examine those who work at women's shelters and their experiences on abused women's leaving processes. Also if these experiences has changed their way of working with helping other abused women. Two questions were used to achieve the purpose. The first question is about women’s leaving processes and the second is about the shelters work. The execution of the study is supported by the fact that there is a knowledge gap in this area. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine employees at various women's shelters in sweden. A thematic analysis was used to analyze the collected data, and then to identify codewords formed into themes. Eight themes were found; environment, support, knowledge, external factors, the woman, knowledge, support and individual factors. The results showed that according to the women's shelters, it's individual why a woman leaves a violent relationship but the main reasons are when children or the environment is affected, that the violence escalates or that the woman has had enough. They also felt that experiences and knowledge about women's leaving processes have an impact on their work with other abused women.