"(Women battering) is one of the few issues of women's rights which cuts across barriers of income, class and race. It is also one of the few questions which establishes a common link between the developed and the developing worlds. One of the most positive features of the women's movement in the industrialized countries is that this issue is being raised at various levels.

Unfortunately on this subject there is a deep grave silence in the rural areas of the poor countries. There does not as yet exist any movement of ideas to expose the issue. Women continue to be beaten regularly as a sport."

K.A.-P. (India)

Wife assaults represent a very high proportion of all violent offenses reported to the police, and is by far the most prevalent form of violence in the family.

Dobash & Dobash

Alcoholism and women battering

Does he beat his wife because he drinks? - there is no clear answer.

There seems to be some correlation of drunkenness with wife beating: about 30% of cases involve a drunken aggressor. So a consideration of drinking behavior and violence is important, if only to alert women about when they are in danger.

But perhaps, as some suggest, he drinks in order to beat up his wife.Getting drunk involves a decision to lose control, a per-arranged excuse for violence, justifying any action. One sociologist, (Richard Gelles quoted in t1s. ISIS 285) suggests that "Drinking is a disavowal technique. Husbands know they will be released from responsibility both by their wives and by the rest of society"

We might add that this kind of drinking is hardly peculiar to wife beating: half the prisoners in the United States convicted of serious crimes used liquor while committing them. In any case, several ·sources warn about the pitfalls of emphasizing the man's alcoholism. This can lead to an accent on the "sick" husband who needs help, and indeed he does, but in the meantime the woman needs aid and protection. This can also lead to a pseudo-enlightened accent on the"sick couple~ It is a very short distance between "I beat her because I drink" to "she drives me to drink" - in other words "she provoked me~· Thus the man, the criminal, becomes the victim of his own loss of control. And the real victim becomes the agent provocateur.

EDMISTON, Susan, "The Wife Beaters", Woman's Day (March 1976), USA

LIVINGSTONE, Nancy, "Wife Beating Looms as Major City Crime", St. Paul Sunday Pioneer Press (Dec. 1974) USA.

GINGOLD, Judith, "Battered Wives: Help for the Secret Victim next door", MS (Aug. 1976) USA

Pregnancy and women battering

There appears to be a definite correlation between higher frequency of violence and pregnancy. In one report (Gelles) violence occurred during pregnancy in almost one quarter of the families. Although the situation of stress is given as one of the major causes of wife beating, the fact that the pregnant woman is more especially vulnerable, defenseless and less able to retaliate tends not to place the man in the position of needing sympathy and being the "poor", "stressed" husband-father figure who has so many burdens. For example, Pizzey states that "the man often refuses to let his wife use contraceptives thus pregnancy itself often precipitates more violent punching and kicking". Leghorn states that the new child is a threat to the husband...that his jealousy is the reason for sudden outbursts often resulting in miscarriage, premature birth, or brain damage .

GELLES, Richard J. , "Violence and Pregnancy: a note on the extent of the problem and needed services", The Family Coordinator, Jan~ 1975 (ISIS 248)

PIZZEY, Erin, Scream Quietly or the Neighbours will hear, Pengiun, London, 1974. (ISIS 293)

LEGHORN, Lisa, Social Responses to Battered Women, USA, 1976 (ISIS 250)

Child abuse and women battering

Does wife abuse imply child abuse? - to some extent - but the relationship between the two is far from clear. Men may batter the children themselves, or beat them when they try to i

ntervene on behalf of their mothers. The simple act of witnessing violence in the home can be considered a form of child abuse. Pizzey goes the furthest in linking battered women and children and says that violent families propagate themselves through generations: battered boys become abusive husbands and fathers: battered girls marry violent men or mistreat their own children.

Others, however, advise great caution in stating that beaten women will continue the cycle of violence by hurting their children. In the first place, this is often untrue. It is frequently "for the sake of the children" that many women seek help at all - thus sharing the general view that their own welfare takes second place. Further, automatically stigmatization the beaten women as "bad mothers" transfers guilt and culpability to the victim once again. It leaves her open to any number of punishments in the guise of help (such as taking away her children) , or to psychological attacks about her individual conflicts. All this detracts from the total picture of wife beating as a part of women's oppression.

DOBASH, Rebecca and Russell , Love, Honour and Obey: Institutional ideologies and the struggle for battered women , University of Stirling, Scotland, 1976 (ISIS 251)

GAYFORD, J .J., "Wife Battering: A preliminary Survey of 100 cases", British Medical Journal, Jan. 25, 1975 (ISIS 257)

LEGHORN, Lisa, Social Responses to Battered Women, Wisconsin, USA, 1976 (ISIS 250)

STRAUSS, Murray A., Sexual Inequality, Cultural Norms, and Wife Beating , Vintage Press, Washington D.C ., 1976 (ISIS 259)

The battered wife often sees herself as a failure within those primary roles by which the male society defines her (wife, mate and mother) and thus believes that it is somehow her fault that she is being beaten. Herein lies the true efficacy of the ideology.

Mary Metzger

Conversation with a prostitute

I have called my two monologues "Conversation with a Prostitute" and Conversation with Maggie (page B ) because the information was given to me in the course of a friendly conversation and might have been different in emphasis had the two women wished to write articles themselves. Maggie is a friend who had told us about her experiences at a feminist group meeting one night. She kindly talked more fully to me later for the sake of this article. The prostitute had heard about the Bulletin and contacted the ISIS collective because she wanted to say something about battering as experienced by street-walkers in Geneva.

We are very grateful to both of them.

Rebecca Poston

I suppose that in this town (Geneva, Switzerland, population approximately 300,000), five or six prostitutes are badly beaten up each week. I don't work the streets now but I still see my friends and they have often been hurt. There's no proper protection. Hotel managers or neighbours call the police when they hear a violent struggle but, by the time the police arrive, t he girl could have had it. It's the very young ones who are in the most danger. Prostitutes have to be twenty to register but there are younger girls on the streets - often because they are addicts and need the money for drugs. They catch VD easily because they don't know the basic hygiene rules and they don't understand that you must always get on top of the man. If he is above you and turns violent you've no hope at all. The high-class call girls are in danger too. They often live alone, very quietly and unknown to the police. They've no-one within call. It's dangerous but with the way prostitutes are treated I can understand them risking it.

Pimps aren't much help. Women - lesbian lovers - are better at protecting their girls but they can suddenly lose interest and leave a girl when she needs help of some kind. So many street walkers seem to expect bad treatment from their pimp. They boast about it. He's a real man if he has blacked both their eyes. If a man persistently mistreats his girl we sometimes get together to beat him up. We wouldn't tell the police because we want to keep it in the community. Anyway, it's not safe to inform. There is a mark called a "croix des vaches" that's made on the face of a suspected informer. It's just made with the edge of a sugar-lump but you can't remove it and the whole community knows you aren't loyal to your own kind. It's not easy for a girl to leave her pimp. God knows it's hard enough to get off the streets without some man after you, desperate to get his income back.

I don't think we'd be much better off in brothels. You read about the golden-hearted Madame but I've never met one. What I'd really like to see are state-owned houses where we could rent studios each. There could be access to social and medical services but we'd have some independence. At the moment we pay high income tax, assessed by the city, but the city does nothing for us. Even if we paid nothing I think we should be helped because we're necessary. So often it's a prostitute who prevents a suicide or a sex crime.

There's no real hope of licensed houses here. The official attitude is to sweep us under the carpet. Perhaps we could get together and set up shared houses. We should organize. It's starting to happen in other countries. There's a kindness and tenderness between prostitutes which the outside world never sees. We could help one another and start to run our lives the way we want.

Conversation with Maggie

My first husband used to beat me. The conventional wisdom tells me that at some level I must have asked for, wanted and enjoyed it. That isn't true. I was frightened at the thought of more pain and humiliated in front of the doctor who had seen the sprains and bruises so often before. The beating was never hot sexual excitement for me but always cold misery.

I really liked Andrew when I first met him. He was an unusual, friendly person and I enjoyed being with him and his group. We were casual friends for about a year and then as soon as we were engaged, he started to hit me. I know now that I should have gotten out. At the time I accepted that everything would be all right once we were married. He was under a great strain because he had broken another engagement: because as a theological student he'd have to ask permission to marry and because he wasn't sure if clergymen should marry at all. He was always horrified by what he'd done after hurting me and since his positive feelings were so strong and the times we had together could be very good, I thought I only had to be patient.

It didn't get better after we were married. We were running a commune and we worked together well and shared ideas and friends. But from time to time Andrew still attacked me - usually without any provocation. He was always appalled and tearful afterwards and terribly apologetic so it seemed natural to comfort him. When we had been married a year he beat me really badly and ran himself to get help for me. Typically he brought not a doctor but my confessor. It was arranged that Andrew should have therapy.

The other piece of conventional wisdom I keep hearing is that women stay with brutal husbands because of economic dependence. But I was independent. Once Andrew went into therapy the psychiatrist said that he should only work part-time so I had to find a well-paid job. Four years later when I finally left him, it was an enormous help to have a good income and to be working for a large firm which could give practical assistance. But I only felt able to leave when he started to hurt the children. Until that time his economic dependence was a barrier. How could I leave a sick person who depended on my income? I certainly couldn't leave someone so emotionally dependent. When I felt desperate I used to phone Andrew's psychiatrist who told me that the prognosis was in any case bad. If I left Andrew
he would almost certainly have a total breakdown (he didn't).

So Church and Medicine agreed that Andrew was my responsibility. His welfare was of real importance and my sufferings only unfortunate. This I accepted. I only left when my duty to Andrew conflicted with my duty to my children. Ten years later this seems extraordinary but that was how I felt then. I suspect that is how many battered wives feel today.

Psychiatric attitudes to wife beating

As far as theory goes, this writer has found little analysis of wife abuse in the literature on purely psychiatric grounds. This is probably because wife beating is seen as a social and political issue rather than a medical and individual problem. Nearly all the analyses are conducted from this point of view and psychiatric practice is criticized on this basis.

Whilst feminist critics can dismiss psychiatry, many women have to put up with the prevailing psychiatric methods. These methods merely reflect the current wisdom: anti-depressant drugs and tranquilizers for repeatedly beaten and desperate women, maybe ECT (elector-convulsive therapy)and in the past, leucotomy. Attitudes stem usually from the Freudian view of feminine masochism (she likes it or she would get out) though see Juliet Mitchell's book for a refutation of Freuds' culpability for attitudes to women in general. As usual, beaten women are asked not to threaten their husbands self esteem and to find out how they are provoking him.... a woman tells her experience of "relational therapy": "When I said that I was so afraid of my husband because he had tried to strangle me the night before, the therapist answered "But ma'am, do you ever think how terrible it is for your husband that you are so afraid of him?" (Warrior). Women who are beaten are characterized by some psychiatrists as being castrating,efficient, domineering etc.

Members of the medical profession, including psychiatrists, also beat their wives.

EDMISTON, Susan, "The Wife Beaters", Woman's Day (March 1976) USA. Surveys some psychiatric investigations without criticism: and some treatments offered. (ISIS 225)

GAYFORD, J.J ., "Wife Battering: a preliminary survey of 1000 cases", British Medical Journal (Jan . 1975) England. See citation on Wilson below.

METZGER, Mary, "What did you do to Provoke Him?", Politics and Health Policy,  (mimeographed paper), New York, 1976. Short criticism of Freud masochist view. (ISIS 249)

MITCHELL , Juliet, Psychoanalysis and Feminism, Pelican, London, 1975 . For a re- examination of feminist criticism of Freud.

WARRIOR, Betsy, "Battered Lives", Second Wave V.4 , No . 2 (Fall 1975) USA. Places psychiatry in historical context of violence against women. (ISIS 219)

WILSON , Elisabeth , The Existing Research into Battered Women , NWAF, London 1976. Excellent on the pitfalls of research into the subject and good critique of
Gayford ' s paper (see above) . Mentions other US research. (ISIS 291)

economic dependency/private property

Much of the literature on wife battering from industrialized countries makes preliminary and passing comments on the historical position of woman as the husband's property in an attempt to describe its origins.

This is seen in the laws and social expectations surrounding marriage and the family, and the long social history of the inferiority of women. Leghorn cites John Stuart Mill who, in 1869 wrote of the absolute power of the husband over the wife, leaving him legally free to commit "any atrocity except killing her". Dobash and Dobash expand on this, explaining that 19th and early 20th century laws in Britain gave explicit control to husbands over their wives ' social and legal affairs. It seems that men considered it their right to beat their wives. This paper goes on to cite cases of law showing that magistrates' attitudes were favourable to men rather than women.

Metzger briefly traces three ideological "motifs" recurring over a period of 2,500 years: (1) woman as partial man, as in the Greek philosophical tradition, (2 ) concepts of female as unconscious, dependent and passive (both Greek and Oriental as well as contemporary concepts of "male" and "female"), and (3) Judea-Christian definitions of woman as man's helpmate and servant. Warrior goes further to describe cultures where women's inferiority is expressed by, for example, their eating last, or by their
feet being bound. All studies see religion as one of the major forces in shaping social structures where women are inferior and to be disposed of by men. These factors help to explain why wife beating is legitimized (or at the very least not outwardly condemned) in many societies with the result that the beaten woman may herself accept this, and consider the beating as her "due" because she has failed in some way to be a good wife (Metzger) .

The private property analysis is linked to the argument in that part of the problem is woman's economic dependence on man. The fact that the man is the head of the household and thus controls the finances (he is the main breadwinner in many societies' eyes) means that women do not have the financial possibility to leave. Warrior takes this as a basic assumption, saying that the family structure itself must be attacked in order to ensure permanent change for women. Metzger is the most outspoken, saying that a woman's economic dependency renders her socially and literally immobile, with no access to social and legal assistance. The fact that women depend on men financially is seen not as a cause of battering but as a great impediment to changing the situation.

But it is important not to over emphasis this point. Although some battered women (or even many) are in a financially dependent situation, this may not be the only major reason for their not changing their situation. Clearly, the social pressures on marriage weigh very heavily, and the isolation of women, especially in industrialized societies, makes it hard for women to get help. However, a~other important factor is a special psychological one. A woman may not even think she deserves to be beaten, but may still find it impossible to contemplate leaving a situation where she is getting at least some (love and) attention and where she loves the man. The notes on an interview with Maggie in this bulletin show very clearly how the financial situation was not a problem (her husband was financially dependent on her) , and yet it was emotionally very difficult for her to leave. This particular aspect is dealt with very little in the literature.

BARDEN, Jim and Carolyn, "The Battered Wife Syndrome", Viva, USA (undated). (ISIS 228)

DOBASH, R. Emerson and Russel, Love, Honour and Obev: Institutional ideologies and the struggle for battered women (mimeographed discussion paper) , Scotland, 1976. (ISIS 251)

EDMISTON, Susan, "The Wife Beaters", Woman's Day (March 1976) USA. (ISIS 225)

LEGHORN, Lisa, Social Responses to Battered Women (meeting report) , USA 1976. (ISIS 250)

METZGER, Mary "What did you do to Provoke him?" New York, 1976. (ISIS 249) WARRIOR, Betsy, "Battered Lives", Houseworkers' Handbook, USA, 1974. 219)

battered women and the law

United States

"In 85% of the cases of domestic homicide the police were summoned at least once before the killing occurred In 50% of the cases the police were called 5 times or more before the actual murder took place."

Kansas Police Dept. USA Study 1970-71

Australia

"A New South Wales bricklayer shot his 56 year-old de facto wife in the chest , a wound from which she died. He also attempted, but failed to shoot her 25 year-old son. On September 27, 1973 a Central Criminal Court jury (all men) found him not guilty of murdering the de facto wife - but guilty of one attempted murder of the son. On the latter charge he was sentenced to 14 years jail with a non-parole period of 4 years! The judge remarked that the accused was lucky not to have killed the son and be facing a murder charge. In this case it is clear that attempting to kill another man is taken much more seriously by the judiciary than the successful killing of a woman . The total sentence, including the non-parole period, was harsher than any now being imposed for wife-killing."

Barbara Jones, "The Wife Killers", Vashti's Voice, June/July, 1974

These attitudes of police, lawyers, judges and lawmakers are the major obstacles facing a woman who wishes to protect herself legally from a husband or partner who is battering her . But in order even to formulate this wish she must realize for herself (no man is going to tell her) that being assaulted by a husband or lover is not proof of his love; that she is not his property to be dealt with however he wishes; that no woman ever "deserves" to be beaten by a man and that assault is always a crime and always an offense against human dignity.

If she has realized any of these things, or if she has simply been beaten once too often, her first step will probably be to telephone the police. And the screening system goes into action.

The police may answer her call. But probably only if she says she has been attacked with a deadly weapon. (In Atlanta, Georgia, 60% of night shift calls are reporting domestic disputes; in Boston there are 18,000 calls a year. - Newsweek, July 1974). If the police do come they will of ten be totally unequipped to handle the situation. They frequently have had no training in how to deal with domestic conflict and at best can suggest that the husband take a walk around the block. One man took this advice literally and later returned to the house and killed his wife.

The police are more likely to be hostile to the wife and to side with the husband.

"She probably deserved it" . "Those bruises aren't too serious". "What did you do to make him hit you?" She will probably be counseled against taking any action ( " Imagine what he'll do next time if you make trouble"; "He could lose his job and then you'll be really stuck") because they have learnt from their colleagues, and from the reaction of the court that marital violence is not "real crime".

"Individuals accepting patriarchal ideas (that the wife is her husband's property consider it a husband's right to control his wife. Action is only taken when this right has exceeded certain tacit limits or the behavior becomes a public nuisance (men make too much noise beating their wives late at night:) Here police are more mediators and regulators of violence than law enforcers.

"The minimal and insipid response of the police on an individual level reflects the individual and institutional acceptance of wife beating and illustrates to all men and women that husbands have this right." (Love, Honour and Obey - Institutional Ideologies and t he Struggle for Battered Women, Dobash & Dobash)

Unlike other victims, the battered woman must prove that she wants justice. Police are often reluctant to prosecute and tell the woman to bring her own personal prosecution, and this can be so difficult that she gives up - thus reinforcing the idea that she didn't want help in the first place. (Dobash)

If she is determined enough to go ahead on her own she may find that she must do exactly that - sympathetic lawyers are equally hard to find . Citizens Advice and Civil Liberties groups are so grateful for the services of professionals who volunteer to take on these cases that there is usually little investigation into the lawyers' own motives. One woman was ref erred to a partner in a respected firm whose only interest was in savoring the juicy details, sensationalizing her claims (as if the facts themselves weren't bad enough) and then did not even bother to come to court when the case was being heard.

Many courts will not hear an application for an injunction against a violent husband (forbidding him to repeat his attack - though even these are rarely backed up by a genuine enforcement policy) unless the wife also petitions for divorce at the same time. This will cause difficulties for a woman who feels that her marriage may survive if the husband's violence can be curbed - having obtained the injunction she will drop the divorce petition. But next time she is beaten she will not be taken seriously since she "keeps changing her mind".

And yet, the wife who want a divorce will be subjected to a long round of marriage counseling, conciliation efforts by lawyers, husband and court, all trying desperately to preserve the marriage for the sake of the husband and Society.

Even in cases of private prosecution being brought by the wife accusing her husband of assault and battery (in jurisdictions where these actions are permitted) the case will be heard in a Family Court and not in the Criminal Courts , since the issue is seen as a "domestic problem" and not as a crime. In Family courts the husband does not risk the severer penalties available in the Criminal court - the penalties he would risk if he had made the same attack on a stranger or lodger in the same house:

On the very practical level of simply wanting to avoid another beating by leaving her husband, the woman often finds herself faced with a classical, if complex, "Catch 22" situation when she broaches the welfare assistance and separation proceedings. Usually she will be economically dependent on her attacker (especially if there are children - a woman will often tolerate violence against herself for years and act only when the welfare of her children is immediately threatened) • (See section on wife beating and child abuse. She wants to leave her husband but has no money to pay rent, and cannot work because of the children. She is not entitled to welfare payments unless she has a separate home; she is not eligible for a council home (in Great Britain) (though this often amounts to no more than being put on a waiting list)unless she is "homeless" - and as a married woman, by definition always has a matrimonial home - she is never "homeless". To qualify as "homeless" she must begin divorce or separation proceedings - and she cannot do this until she has "separated" from her husband, until she has a separate domicile. But she has no money to pay rent and cannot work because of the children..

In this way the Social Welfare and Judicial processes seemingly conspire to keep the woman trapped in an emotionally tormenting and physically dangerous environment because marriage is sacrosanct and must be preserved at all costs. 'This  is often rationalized by claiming that it is in the best interests of the children that they be kept together with both parents. In fact, a more accurate analysis would be that it is in the best interests of the husband and Society, that he should have a slave-victim on hand, so that he does not take out his anger, frustrations and anxieties on his work-mates, or on unsuspecting members of the public.

There have been some recent innovations in the Law and in Judicial Process which attempt to lower the barriers confronting women who are trying to protect themselves. In the United Kingdom, the Domestic Violence and Matrimonial Proceedings Act 1976 allows that in certain cases a husband may be arrested and face strict penalties if he defied an injunction, where beforehand he was jailed for "contempt of court" and released when he apologized and promised not to d o it again - usually the next morning. In the United States, an Indiana judge will deal with a wife beater by putting him on Probation, and making the beaten wife his probation officer. In part this is purely psychological (the man will think twice before hitting a probation officer) but it also has a practical effect, Any repeated offense will result in an immediate arrest of the husband at the wife's request, since she is an officer of the Court. Normally in such cases it would take another 3-6 weeks of inquiries, re-hearings and judicial process to decide whether the injuries were severe enough to justify a warrant for arrest.

Special courses have been created to train police officers to deal more effectively with domestic violence in a nonsexist and legally authoritative way. In the United States women police officers are being encouraged to participate on two-person teams that go into the home when called and offer immediate emotional and legal support to the victim.

Things are changing legally, but there is a long way to go, and the process is a slow piecemeal one. So, in the meantime women are finding their own solutions - by group action in forcing refuge accommodation from local authorities and in creating self-sufficient shelters for women and children; by giving support to individual battered women, by adding pressure to social welfare applications and demanding action from the police; by enlisting the services of women lawyers, ·and by learning how to use the court system themselves.

BANNON, J., Law Enforcement Problems with Intra-family Violence, Paper presented to the American Bar Assoc. Convention, August 1975 (ISIS 231)

DOBASH, Rebecca and Russell, Love, Honour and Obey - Institutional Ideologies and the Struggle for Battered Women, University of Stirling, Scotland, August 1976 (ISIS 251)

Domestic Violence and Matrimonial Proceedings Act, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London 1976 (ISIS 272)

GELDER, Lawrence, "Giving Battered Wives a Little Legal Clout", (no source or date given), (ISIS 260)

GILL, Tess and COOTE, Anna, Battered Women - How to Use the Law, Cobden Trust, London 1975 (ISIS 261)

GOODMAN, Emily Jane, "Abused by Her Husband - and the Law", New York Times, USA Oct. 7, 1975 (ISIS 223)

JONES, Barbara, "The Wife Killers", Vashti's Voice, Australia, June/July 1974 (ISIS 212) Observations on the Report from the Select Committee on Violence in Marriage,
Her Majesty's Stationery Office London, Dec. 1976 (ISIS 253)

Report from the Select Committee on Violence in Marriage, Session 1974-75, HMSO, London 1975 (ISIS 263)

WARRIOR, Betsy and LEGHORN, Lisa, "Battered Lives", House-workers Handbook, Women's Centre, Cambridge, Mass. 1975 (ISIS 219)

LEY, Anne-Marie, "Les Femmes Battues etle droit", Femmes Suisses, Geneva, May 1977 (ISIS 296)

GOY, Alexandra, "Frauenrecht: EMMA, Cologne, March 1977 Gewalt", (ISIS 295)

Scottish Women's Aid, Battered Women in Scotland: Your Rights and Where to Turn for Help, Ainslie House, 11 St. Colme Street, Edinburgh, (1976) (ISIS 307).