Women's shelters: empowerment or disciplining?

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to reflect on the institutionalization of women in shelters from a feminist perspective. To this end, we have carried out a documentary review and analyzed the regulations of residential social services in the Valencian Community from the beginning of the democratic period to the present day. With regard to the results, it should be noted that, in addition to the traditional residential centers for women of the different female religious orders, where young women were admitted to indoctrinate them in Catholic morality, new shelters for battered women were added, with clearly feminist approaches and social denunciation. Both models coexisted for practically a decade, until the feminist professionals were deposed, giving way to the bureaucratic and welfare model based on the need-resource binomial that persists to the present day. Regarding the conclusions, it should be noted that these shelters adapt to the discourse of power on the protection of women to continue institutionalizing them; but also that power appropriates feminist initiatives and transforms them to continue disciplining women in traditional sexual roles, so that these residential social service centers respond to patriarchal interests and not to the real needs of women and their empowerment.