Giving Compass' Take:

• The Urban Institute provides details as to the amount of intimate partner violence happening in the Asian American Pacific Islander communities, the potential reasons for why it happens so often, and the organizations that are addressing these issues. 

• How effective has the #MeToo been on the global world, outside of the U.S.? 

• Read about what female leaders are saying about the next steps in the #MeToo movement. 

The #MeToo movement has shed light on the violence and victimization some women face in professional settings and personal relationships. Although many high-profile cases have involved powerful men engaging in sexual harassment and assault in the workplace, it is important to note that victimization of women occurs in a wide range of contexts involving different types of relationships and forms of violence.

As Asian Pacific American Heritage Month comes to a close, we sharpen the focus on how intimate partner violence (IPV) affects Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs), a group around which there remains silence and uncertainty about the issue.

Findings from the 2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Study reveal that about one in five AAPI women reported experiencing rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner during their lifetime, a rate ostensibly lower than that among women of other racial or ethnic identities.

The National Latino and Asian American Study found that AAPI women who are of high socioeconomic status and are US born are more likely to experience IPV than their lower-socioeconomic-status and foreign-born counterparts.

In particular, AAPI women earning higher wages than their male partners are more likely to experience IPV. The study found that with their partners attaining financial independence, AAPI men subscribing to notions of traditional gender roles common to Asian cultures may feel threatened and resort to violence to maintain a patriarchal power dynamic.

But it’s difficult to determine whether these discrepancies are due to actual differences in IPV occurrences or if they are a product of differences in reporting behaviors. Some researchers believe the source of variation is the latter.

Read the full article about intimate partner violence in AAPI communities by Cathy Hu at Urban Institute.