to expand our understanding of male dominance beyond its operations in the economic and legal spheres of our social organization to its functions within a deeper, more fundamental systemic set of relations of inequality. The term signals the inclusion not only of traditional ways in which women have been subordinated to the "male head of household" (the father or husband or lacking either of these, the son/brother—young or old so long as male), but also the symbolic system through which our social relations are organized and maintained, extending beyond but still including immediate familial forms of patriarchic dominance (pp. 20-21).

In this same chapter, Lewis suggests that women's silence is not indicative of women's deficiency or "weak political/material conditions" but a "double-edged discourse of speaking and silence" (pp. 21-22). She claims that "women's confinements within the terms of patriarchy had been assumed to be so complete that an act of rebellion had not seemed possible" (p. 33) and that "a significant aspect of men's claims to power through their assumed right to abuse in what has traditionally been passed off as an insignificant social encounter…women are expected to absorb such violation, in the name of joking."

Many of the women in my study, as already outlined, suffer intimidation from their partners. One of the consequences of being afraid of asserting their voices, they are left in a passive and vulnerable position with their partners exerting their power and control over them pushing them into a submissive role. For example, Andrea, who appears to be an astute and perceptive woman, nevertheless, remains trapped in an abusive relationship for whatever the cost. She recognizes that she lacks the skills or education to make a better life for herself on her own and so suffers daily abuse imposed by her husband. Living with a husband who gambles their meager income, she always has money on her mind.

Andrea's husband keeps a close eye over who she associates with at home. Andrea remains a prisoner in her own home, unable to invite others to visit without the approval of her husband. It is therefore easy to understand the barriers that she faces in trying to enhance her own skills or even to become involved in supporting school activities to help her children. For Andrea, it is more than developing voice; it is making her silenced voice heard.