Journal of Rural and Community Development, 2023, 18(1): 1-18

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a pervasive public health concern with significant economic costs. While common forms of violence include physical, sexual, and psychological, there is growing research on the impacts of economic abuse. By hindering a women’s economic self-sufficiency or self-efficacy, this form of abuse positions women to be dependent on their partners. The purpose of this study is to explore how resilience is influenced by economic abuse in rural Ontario in the context of GBV. This interpretive description study involved interviews with 14 women who experienced GBV and 12 service providers across eight rural women’s shelters between November 2020 and June 2021. Both women and service providers identified barriers to women’s resilience stemming from economic abuse, including different forms of economic abuse (e.g., being forbidden from working), a lack of economic self-sufficiency as a barrier to individual resilience, and the economic setbacks of rural communities to women’s environmental resilience. Results from this study highlight the supports necessary for rural women to cultivate their resilience in the context of economic abuse. (Authors' abstract). Record #8180