Redefining tolerance among Indian women: Silence, agency, and self-reclamation in abusive marriages

Women's silence in abusive marriages is often conceptualised within broader literature as passive submission, limiting understanding of women's agency and silence within abusive contexts. This study explored how Indian women experiencing spousal abuse negotiate identity, agency, and silence within patriarchal relational spaces where abuse tolerance is culturally normalized. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 married Indian women experiencing IPV, and narrative thematic analysis was conducted to identify themes around agency, silence, and identity. Findings revealed that women showcased resistance through active reconstruction of narratives around abuse tolerance and ideal womanhood, that centred their well-being over relational preservation. Further, resistance and agency in abusive contexts were also shown by women through rejection of patriarchal gender roles and identities. The findings also highlight that women actively engaged in the self-reclamation process, through rechannelising of their energy on building their agency. Silence was actively chosen by women, as a form of resistance to withdraw their energy from abusive relational spaces and reinvest it on themselves. The findings demonstrate that women are active agents that constantly negotiate survival, identity, agency in the oppressive relational and cultural contexts and reconceptualises silence as a dynamic identity process, whose meanings and functions shift across context.