The main argument is that IPV research must be placed into its broader political economic context in order to be fully understood. The author criticizes researchers who contend that women are just as violent as men within intimate relationships, claiming that these researchers ignore the context in which women use violence. Indeed, research that implies women are just as violent as men is criticized as inherently flawed and has been misused by political groups to further their own agenda. The author also points out that those who claim women are just as violent within the home as men have failed to examine sexual assault within intimate relationships, which is overwhelmingly perpetrated by men against their female partners or ex-partners. The need for more qualitative research in the field of IPV is called for along with more studies on the abuse experiences of rural women. Recent studies by scholars in this journal article that have strived to fully examine the complexity of women’s experience of IPV are lauded as the author points out that these types of scholars should strive to make their research findings available to the mainstream mass media. Notes, references