Scandal star Kerry Washington is being lauded for championing women empowerment. In her hit show, she stars as Olivia Pope, a crisis manager who dedicated her life fixing the images of public figures, most especially the president. Women power is what ABC's Scandal and Washington try to advocate. In real life though, there are still women who still cannot empower themselves against abuse. Worse than that, they still choose to stick around despite what they have been through. Washington weighed in on the domestic violence issue and she has an explanation why some women still choose to stay.
The Emmy nominated actress spoke about abuse on women and she said that most of those who underwent physical abuse choose to stay because of one major factor, financial needs.
"It's the reason why so many people stay," she said in an interview with The Huffington Post. "That whole hashtag #WhyIStayed that happened last week, you saw how many of those responses were about feeling trapped financially."
Washington is actually right about this. The National Network to End Domestic Violence, most abusers use money to get a hold of their victims.
"In some abusive relationships, financial abuse is present throughout the relationship and in other cases financial abuse becomes present when the survivor is attempting to leave or has left the relationship."
Financial abuse, while less commonly understood, is one of the most powerful methods of keeping a survivor trapped in an abusive relationship and deeply diminishes her ability to stay safe after leaving an abusive relationship. Research indicates that financial abuse is experienced in 98% of abusive relationships and surveys of survivors reflect that concerns over their ability to provide financially for themselves and their children was one of the top reason for staying in or returning to a battering relationship.
For Scandal's Kerry Washington, people have no idea about this kind of invisible abuse.
"If a woman isn't even aware of the dynamics of financial abuse -- what it looks like, what it is -- she may not even know that that's part of the tools being used to control her and manipulate her and keep her trapped. When there is more information around it, people can begin to identify it and then get the help they need."
