Culture' as a barrier to service provision and delivery: domestic violence services for minoritized women Abstract This paper addresses how domestic violence services to women of African, African-Caribbean, South Asian, Jewish and Irish backgrounds are structured by assumptions about 'culture' which produce barriers to the delivery of domestic violence services. Phoenix's (1987, 'Theories of Gender and Black Families', pp. 50-61 in G. Weiner and M. Arnot (eds) Gender Under Scrutiny. London: Hutchinson) discussion of the representation of black women is applied more generally to analyse how discourses of gender and racialization function within accounts of domestic violence service provision. Discourses of both cultural specificity and generality/commonality are shown to intersect to effectively exclude minority ethnic women from such services. Domestic violence emerges as something that can be overlooked or even excused for 'cultural reasons', as a homogenized absence; or alternatively as a pathologized presence, producing heightened visibility of minoritized women both within and outside their communities -since domestic violence brings them and their communities under particular scrutiny. Such configurations also inform discourses of service provision to minoritized women. Finally key implications are identified for service design, delivery and development, including the need for both culturally specific and mainstream provision around domestic violence, and the need to challenge notions of 'cultural privacy' and 'race anxiety' in work with minoritized communities.

En este artículo interactúo con la autoetnografía feminista como forma de aproximación al fenómeno cultural de ser una mujer "gorda". La autoetnografía feminista es un enfoque profundo y comprometido, que logra poner de relieve la colonización de espacios y discursos. El proceso destaca la coexistencia y la exposición de "yoes" líquidos vulnerables -cuestionando nociones de un yo, que es una "identidad" cuidadosamente contenida y controlada. El proceso crítico de la autoetnografía feminista se entrelaza con bibliografía sobre investigación feminista, feminismos, autoetnografía, estudios críticos sobre la gordura e interseccionalidad. Un punto clave de esta investigación es el proceso reflexivo de investigar las experiencias de ser una "mujer gorda" y como yo (y mi discurso) "resisto[imos] a las normas sociales e institucionales que frecuentemente prescriben la investigación"

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It has been suggested that South Asian (SA) women are abandoning nutritionally-superior indigenous weaning practices in favour of poorer British weaning practices (1) . The present study aims to explore the weaning practices of SA women living in Britain and the sources of information that affect their nutritional choices.Two focus groups (FG) and seven individual interviews were conducted with twelve women of SA origin living in Bradford, UK in order to explore social and cultural beliefs surrounding food choices, including a discussion of the weaning process. The 2 FG consisted of four and five participants respectively and were held to develop ideas, highlight problems and facilitate the emergence of data that reflected participants' realities (2) . The FG and the interviews were transcribed verbatim and discussions classified into themes using quotes from the transcriptions (3) . In addition, information about sources of dietary information was collected by self-administered, tick box questionnaire from pregnant women as part of the Born in Bradford prospective cohort study at the Bradford Royal Infirmary (BRI). This cohort included women of all ethnicities attending the clinic for glucose tolerance testing at the BRI.Preliminary analysis indicates that mothers found that the weaning recipes they received were bland and that the infants did not mature to develop a taste for their own cultural food. FG discussions revealed that, although mothers complied with some of the advice given to them such as feeding a low-salt diet, they also 'followed their own heart' to allow the infant to develop tastes belonging to their own culture.A total of 1306 sets of questionnaire data were collected. Classified into ethnicity, 429 and 517 sets of valid data were collected from Asian or Asian British (SA) and Caucasian (C) groups respectively. Health visitors were the most popular choice as a source of nutritional knowledge among both the SA and C groups, with 38 % and 28 % respectively choosing this option. Family members, however, were more popular among the SA group than the C group, with 28% and 20 % respectively choosing this option and 22 % and 34 % respectively choosing magazines, newspapers and books.These data indicate that SA mothers value the advice given by health visitors; however, qualitative data suggest that there are problems integrating advice from health professionals with cultural norms. Weaning advice given should take into consideration traditional customs to inform good nutritional practices during the weaning process.

This paper considers our experience within a group researching domestic violence in minoritised groups and the implications for counselling practice. Issues of race, gender and power were significant within the research team. These issues are intrinsic to minoritised women's experiences of service responses and are also a powerful, yet often unexplored, dynamic in counselling practice. We reflect on issues of ‘outsiders’ and ‘insiders’ in terms of the research process and findings, and the impact and influence of these power roles on counselling practice. We acknowledge that it is only by retrospectively engaging with each other and our differences that we have been able to explore our parallel processes and consider their implications for counselling practice.