From victims of domestic violence to determined independent women: How Vietnamese immigrant spouses negotiate Taiwan's patriarchy family system

SynopsisUsing interview data from 16 abused Vietnamese transnational wives and 6 male abusers in Taiwan, this paper seeks to understand how these immigrant women negotiate the Taiwanese patriarchal family system, and in the end empower themselves to find ways out of the shadow of domestic violence. We contend that the women's relationships with the patriarchal families are constantly changing in different structures and time-frames, and we delineate the dynamic social process experienced by these immigrant women. Employment, together with other advantageous structural factors, was important to the changes in their relationships with their husbands' families. Taiwan's state intervention in the Domestic Violence Prevention Act as well as in influencing the economic structure based on flexible small- and medium-sized enterprises are beneficial factors which help women leave unhappy marriages. Our paper argues that it is only through this dynamic negotiation process can we avoid the pitfall of portraying them as victimized, poor and miserable.