Yes, that's a big part of it. Women are awash in patriarchal dominance hierarchy dynamics too and have often been the victims of them themselves. We don't necessarily entirely know why lesbians are more likely than women in hetero relationships to take on masculine norms of control and abuse that escalates when the other partner threatens to leave, but there does seem to be a lot of those same dynamics in play in some lesbian relationships.
“Lesbians who abuse another women may do so for reasons similar to those that motivate heterosexual male batterers. Lesbians abuse their partners to gain and maintain control (9). Lesbian batterers are motivated to avoid feelings of loss and abandonment. Therefore, many violent incidents occur during threatened separations. Many lesbian batterers grew up in violent households and were physically, sexually, or verbally abused and/or witnessed their mothers being abused by fathers or stepfathers (6,7,14).”
