Disclosing Gender-Based Violence: A Qualitative Analysis of Professionals’ and Women’s Perspectives through a Discursive Approach

Supporting women to disclose gender-based violence (GBV) is a central feature of how healthcare and other welfare services address this problem. In this paper we take a discursive approach to analyse the process of disclosing GBV from the perspectives of young women who have been subjected to GBV and professionals working in the welfare system. Through a reflective thematic analysis of 13 interviews with young women who have been subjected to GBV and 17 with professionals working in different sectors of the welfare system, we developed four themes about how disclosure is perceived: (i) as a conversation between acquaintances; (ii) as ‘no solution’; (iii) as a possible prerequisite for action; and (iv) as difficult because GBV is normalised. Even if disclosure is not the solution per se, it makes it possible to respond institutionally to GBV on an individual basis through the figure of the expert professional who is alert to signs, knows how to support disclosure, and has the power to legitimate women’s claims of GBV. We acknowledge the possibilities that supporting disclosure brings for women subjected to GBV, but at the same time, problematise that it can re-centre expertise in the professional and place the responsibility on women.