Sex Discrimination and Sex-Based Harassment

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) includes both dating and domestic violence and abuse and is defined as a pattern of behavior that includes the use or threat of violence and intimidation for the purpose of gaining power and controlling another person in the context of a romantic or intimate relationship. IPV can happen to anyone regardless of race, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion, and socio-economic background..

Know the Signs of Abuse

• 1 Intensity

  Lying, over the top gestures, bombarding with texts, calls, & messages, moving too quickly.

• 2 Jealousy

  Behaving irrationally or resenting your time spent with family/friends, accusing you of cheating.

• 3 Control

  Telling you how to dress, what to think, who to talk to. Checking your phone/social media. Sexually coercing you.

• 4 Isolation

  Insisting you only spend time with them, preventing you from seeing others, making you feel emotionally dependent.

• 5 Criticism

  Putting you down, ridiculing your beliefs or feelings, making you feel like a burden or feel worthless.

• 6 Sabotage

  Making you miss work or school, being needy when you're busy, gaslighting you, destroying your self esteem.

• 7 Blame

  Making you feel guilty or responsible for their hurtful behavior, threatening suicide or self-harm if you try to set a boundary or leave.

• 8 Anger

  Overreacting, losing control, violent outbursts, severe mood swings, threatening you or loved ones, making you feel afraid.

Women’s Center of Montgomery County. Know the signs of Abuse. Women’s Center of Montgomery County. Retrieved 2023, from http://www.wcmontco.org.

Information & Resources

Dating Violence and Domestic violence is covered in the sexual misconduct policy and Title IX at Haverford, and there are other resources you can access outside of Haverford.

The Women’s Center of Montgomery County

The Women’s Center of Montgomery County is a domestic violence and abuse organization founded in 1976 with the mission of freedom from domestic violence and all other forms of abuse. Despite the title of the Women’s center, the Women’s Center of Montgomery County serves all genders.

Depending on the call, The Women’s Center is a central point which can be used to connect people to other resources which allows them to become safe, such as access to housing, legal assistance, child services, sex crime victim support services, and more.

You can access resources in the following ways: