For the field to truly understand women’s use of intimate partner violence (IPV), it is absolutely crucial that the following three steps be taken by researchers to put context back into the equation: (1) incorporate the effects of multiple oppressions women face within the context of predominantly male offending across different types of violent criminal categories (top level); (2) integrate findings from both objective and subjective research methods that will require elevating subjective approaches to the same status as objective (middle level); and (3) centralize the issue of ongoing patterns of coercion, power, and control within our definitions of IPV (individual level). Without such an embedded approach, the field will continue to divert much-needed resources toward the so-called gender symmetry debate and run the risk of helping to perpetuate further injustices against women. Today, it is still common for many domestic violence researchers within the United States to overlook the deeply ingrained cultural and structural violence against women. It is important to acknowledge that at this point in time there is a cyclical period of holding women accountable for their own victimization, especially as they are being blamed for their resistance within oppressive and violent intimate heterosexual relationships. As evidence for this, there is a revisiting of the issue of women’s use of violence in general and IPV in particular. So, it is therefore time to put the social context surrounding women’s use of IPV back into the equation. Figure and references