“HERSTORY” OF THE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN MOVEMENT

753 B.C.	Under the Laws of Chastisement, the husband has absolute rights to physically discipline his wife. These laws permit the husband to beat his wife with a rod or switch as long as its circumference is no greater than the girth of the base of the man’s right thumb, hence “The Rule of Thumb.”
c. 300 A.D.	The Church fathers re-establish the husband’s patriarchal authority and the patriarchal values of Roman and Jewish law. The Roman Emperor, Constantine the Great, has his wife burned alive when she is no longer of use to him.
Middle Ages (900-1300)	In a theological manual, man is given permission to “castigate his wife and beat her for correction…”.
1400’s	The Christian church encourages husbands to be “more compassionate, use moderation in their punishments, and treat their wives with as much mercy as they would their hens and pigs.”
1500’s	Lord Hale sets the tradition of non-recognition of marital rape. He states that when women married, they “gave themselves to their husbands” in contract, and could not withdraw that consent until they divorced.
	Early settlers in America base their laws on old English common-law that explicitly permits wife-beating for correctional purposes but allows the husband to whip his wife only with a switch no bigger than his thumb.
Late 1500’s	The State Church issues a Household Ordinance that describes when and how a man might most effectively beat his wife. He is allowed to kill his wife for disciplinary purposes only.
1824	A decision by the Mississippi Supreme Court allows a husband to administer only “moderate chastisement in cases of emergency. . .”
1857	A Massachusetts court is the first to allow marriage to the victim as a defense for rape.
1866	The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is formed. It predates the founding of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, established in 1875. Both predate any organization aimed at preventing cruelty to women.
1871	Alabama and Michigan declare wife-beating illegal but do not make it a criminal offense.
1874	The “finger-switch” rule is disavowed when the Supreme Court of North Carolina rules that “the husband has no right to chastise his wife under any circumstances.” The court goes on to say, “If no permanent injury has been inflicted, nor malice, cruelty nor dangerous violence shown by the husband, it is better to draw the curtain, shut out the public gaze and leave the parties to forget and forgive.”
1875	Belton, Texas opens a refuge for battered women.
1878	The Matrimonial Causes Act is passed. The Act allows victims of violence to obtain a legal separation from the husband; entitles them custody of the children; and to retain earnings and property secured during the separation.
1880’s	The Matrimonial Causes Act is changed to allow a wife who had been habitually beaten by her husband to the point of “endangering her life” to separate from him, but cannot divorce him.
1882	Maryland is the first state to pass a law that makes wife-beating a crime, punishable by 40 lashes or a year in jail.
1890	North Carolina Supreme Court removes the last of the restrictions on a husband’s liability and prohibits a husband from committing even a slight assault upon his wife.
1905	In Texas, Frazier v. State, a husband is convicted of assault with the intent to commit rape. The appellate court overturns the conviction by essentially restating that marriage to the victim is a defense for rape).
1911	The first family court is created. Professionals believe that domestic relations courts will better solve family problems in a setting of discussion and reconciliation engineered by social service intervention. This is the beginning of the systematic official diversion and exclusion of violence against wives from the criminal justice system.
1917	Bolsheviks give Soviet women full political power and legal equality and assure them access to all economic and cultural areas of Russian society. Legislation deals with the abolition of illegitimacy, the establishment of mother and child welfare centers, creation of day nurseries, the liberalization of abortion laws, and the simplification of marriage procedures.
1919	American women win the right to vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.
1920- 1930’s	Psychoanalysts argue that women derive sexual gratification from the violence they experience.
1950 -1960’s	The civil rights, anti-war and black liberation movements challenge the country, laying a foundation for the feminist movement.
1960’s	The criminal justice system conceives of crisis intervention as a human program to aid police, courts, and victims. Arrest is inappropriate for solving the complex social and psychological problems demonstrated in these “family squabbles.” Police officers become counselors and mediators trained in the skills of crisis intervention. Couples can then be referred to the appropriate social or psychiatric agency. By the time the battered women’s movement develops, family courts and psychiatric and social work approaches reduce these criminal assaults to problems of individual or social pathology.
1963	Betty Friedan authors The Feminine Mystique. It captures the discontent of a whole generation of middle class women who are struggling between aspirations for fulfillment and an ideology that assigns them to the home.
1964	An article in the Archives of General Psychiatry written by Snell, Rosenwald, and Robey suggests that battered wives are like the wives of alcoholics, and that these wives have a masochistic need that their husbands’ aggression fulfills.
1965	Congress passes laws prohibiting discrimination against women in employment and requiring equal pay for equal work. The traditional marriage contract, however, remains legally intact in America.
1966	Every state except Hawaii has passed child abuse report laws.
1967	The state of Maine opens one of the first shelters in the United States.
1968	The Harris poll interviews 1,176 American adults in October. They find that 1/5 approve of slapping one’s spouse on “appropriate occasions.”
Late 1960’s & Early 1970’s	Feminism develops into two major branches, a women’s rights feminism like NOW, and a women’s liberation movement exemplified by socialist feminist and radical feminist groups. The women’s liberation movement, by claiming that what goes on in the privacy of people’s homes is deeply political, sets the stage for the battered women’s movement. The emerging movement details the conditions of daily life that allow women to call themselves battered. Women’s hotlines and crisis centers provide a context for battered women to speak out and seek help. The feminist movement emphasizes egalitarianism and participatory organizational models. In feminist shelters, women create a new morality that is in direct contrast to the competitive, male-dominated organizations and bureaucracies surrounding them. Women are inspired and sustained by their relationships with others, by knowing that their work is crucial and by the feminist process within the shelters. As shelters grow, structural questions arise. Some choose to work collectively; others organize around a hierarchical structure, while still others adopt modified collectives or hierarchies. As more and more shelters and programs receive welfare or Title XX monies, staff workers slowly start to call battered women “clients.” Greater attention is given to individual counseling for women and less on group sharing, peer support and teaching battered women to advocate for one another. Social change is discouraged, and Title XX funding can be used only for services, not community education. Clashes between the movement and funding agencies which want programs to respond like other service organizations sap much energy for several years.
Early 1970’s	Married, battered women who leave their husbands are denied welfare due to their husbands’ income.
	NOW organizes more than 300 local and state rape task forces.
	Scotland and Iran make wife-beating illegal.
	“We will not be beaten” becomes the mantra of women across the country organizing to end domestic violence. A grassroots organizing effort begins, transforming public consciousness and women’s lives. The common belief within the movement is that women face brutality from their husbands and indifference from social institutions.
1972	The Center for Women Policy Studies is founded to identify, analyze and propose solutions to problems related to the status of women.
	In June, the first emergency rape crisis line opens in Washington, D.C.
	The July issue of Ms. Magazine runs an ad for a bowling alley in Michigan that reads “Have some fun. Beat your wife tonight. Then celebrate with some good food and drink with your friends.”
1974	The term “battered women” is still not a part of the public’s vocabulary.
	Out of a recognition of the lack of services for Latina Women and the absence of Latina controlled organizations, a multi-racial group of women in Boston’s South End funds Casa Myrna Vazquez shelter.
	According to the FBI, 132 police officers are killed in the nation. Twenty-nine of them, one out of five officers, are killed while responding to domestic disturbance calls.
	Eisaku Sato, former prime minister of Japan, is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Prior to his nomination, Sato’s wife accused him publicly of beating her. Sato’s popularity soars after his wife reveals that “Yes, he’s a good husband; he only beats me once a week.” Apparently, the committee did not consider wife-beating a breach of peace.
	An Italian man is sentenced to two years in jail for raping his wife at gun point.
	Erin Prizzey authors the groundbreaking Scream Quietly or the Neighbors Will Hear, the first on the subject of battered wives.
1975	With a unanimous vote at its national conference, NOW declares marital violence a major issue and establishes a National Task Force on Battered Women/Household Violence.
	Most U.S. states allow wives to bring criminal action against a husband who inflicts injury upon her.
	After seven years of debate, legal wife-beating is also abolished in Italy.
	In Scotland, the Magistrate George MacKay, fines a husband $11.50 for hitting his wife in the face. The magistrate told the husband, “it is a well known fact that you can strike your wife’s bottom if you wish, but you must not strike her on the face.”
	Brazil passes a penal code that prohibits husbands from selling, renting, or gambling away their wives.
1976	The International Women’s Year Conference is held in Houston, TX. Meetings such as this on the local, state and national level allow women to form coalitions with one another and create a national battered women’s movement.
	The anti-rape movement is at its peak. There are approximately 1,500 separate projects related to the issue of rape.
	There are 400 independent rape crisis centers for women that provide self-defense courses, support groups, and counseling.
	An old town ordinance is still on the books in Pennsylvania stating that no husband shall beat his wife after ten o’clock at night or on Sundays.
1977	Activities have moved from the phrase “battered women” into the public consciousness.
	Francine Hughes is acquitted on the grounds of “temporary insanity” for the murder of her husband. She suffered abuse since 1963, but received no help from police or social workers. Even when she divorced him, he refused to move out. Her story is told in 1980 by Faith McNulty in The Burning Bed: the True Story of an Abused Wife.”
	Women around the country march annually to “Take Back the Night.”
1978	In January, the United States Commission on Civil Rights sponsors a Consultation on Battered Women: Issues of Public Policy attended by activists, academics and representatives from legal, medical and social service agencies.
	The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence is the result of extensive organizing efforts by feminists nationwide. The initial goals of the NCADV emphasize gaining financial aid for shelters and grassroots services, sharing information and supporting research beneficial to the movement.
	Six women in Austin form the Texas Council on Family Violence. Its purpose is to represent Texas’ six battered women’s shelters in their efforts to secure state funding and protective order legislation.
	On May 23, the House of Representatives by a vote of 205 to 201 fails to pass the Domestic Violence Act of 1978. The Senate passes H.R. 12299, the Domestic Violence Act of 1978.
	Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) includes specific language into its funding guidelines reaffirming shelters as an eligible funding category.
	Violence in the home has become a priority for the LEAA when it pioneers a federal response to battered women and recognizes the existence of family violence and women’s right to safety.
1979	There are more than 250 battered women’s shelters in the United States.
	The Texas Legislature passes the first bill establishing pilot funding for battered women’s shelters and providing $200,000 to support the six Texas shelters.
	Rape crisis centers in 20 states join to form the National Coalition Against Sexual Assault.
	“Battered spouse” and “battered woman” are new categories added to the International Classification of Diseases: Clinical Modification Scheme.
	The Domestic Violence Act (1976) allows for temporary exclusion from the house of the violent partner using a civil injunction with the possibility of attaching powers of arrest for subsequent violation.
	Lenore Walker authors “The Battered Woman”.
	As late as 1979, less than 15 state legislatures have enacted laws providing funds for shelters. Less than half of all shelters receive any state or federal funding.
1980	Abused Women’s Aid in Austin, TX completes a multi-million dollar shelter. In order to obtain the cooperation of local funders and influential members of the community, the original group goes through a purge of activists whose personal politics or sexual preferences do not “fit.”
	More than 25 battered women shelters are operating throughout Texas.
	The April, May and June issues of Response has material on programs for men who batter.
	The Air Force establishes an Office on Family Matters to deal with domestic violence.
	Although the Senate passes the Domestic Violence and Services Act, the House – Senate compromise version of the bill is filibustered by a Republican critic and then withdrawn by the sponsors before another Senate vote.
1981	The first annual Domestic Violence Awareness Week is celebrated.
	The Texas Legislature creates the Family Violence Program, allocating $1 million per year for 30 state-supported shelters
	There are nearly 500 battered women’s shelters in the United States.
	In March, the first national conference on “Domestic Violence in the Military Community” is held.
	The Office on Domestic Violence is dismantled after the election of President Reagan. Their few remaining grants are monitored by the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect. By November, NCCAN could site no other federally funded programs for battered women.
	As of September, it is estimated that 25 states allocate federal Title XX or Emergency Assistance funds for domestic violence services.
	The Women of Color Task Force of the National Coalition receives an 8 month planning grant from the Ford Foundation to address issues unique to women of color.
1982	The Texas Council on Family Violence opens its first office in Austin and hosts the first Annual Statewide Conference on Family Violence. Approximately 200 people attend.
	The second National Coalition Against Domestic Violence features the first national Women of Color conference. Race, class and homophobia are central themes of this conference.
	The words “battered women’s movement” has come to symbolize the groups of organizations serving battered women and their children.
	There are an estimated 300 to 700 shelters and safe home projects in the United States.
1983	Over 700 shelters are in operation nationwide serving 91,000 women and 131,000 children per year.
	The Texas Legislature passes a number of bills and resolutions aimed at expanding family violence programs and offering greater protection for victims.
	National attention is focused on male violence after a gang rape of a woman in a bar in Bedford, MA. Four men are convicted of aggravated assault and given prison sentences. The attack on the woman’s character is subject of the film The Accused,” starring Jodie Foster.
1984	The U.S. Attorney General’s Task Force on Family Violence holds national hearings and issues a report.
	The Texas Legislature allocates $2 million to family violence programs and supports 41 shelters.
	An ex-husband convicted of (non-marital) rape asserts a violation of his right to Equal Protection, i.e. if his wife had not obtained a restraining order, thereby causing a separation, his rape of her would not have been a crime. The appellate court agreed with him and struck down the marital rape exemption in the state statute.
	The Victims of Crime Act is passed. In 1988, Congress amends the Act, requiring state victim compensation programs to make awards to victims of domestic violence.
	Lenore Walker writes The Battered Women’s Syndrome.” This book discusses the “learned helplessness” theory of battered women and the “cycle of violence.”
1985	The Texas Legislature passes the Family Violence Prevention Act and allocates $2.3 million annually for family violence services
	Tracey Thurman wins her suit against a Connecticut police department for negligence and violation of her civil rights. Her husband receives a 15-year sentence for attacking her, stabbing her and repeatedly kicking her in the head during 1983.
	In Seattle, the first support group for battered lesbians is started.
1987	The Texas Legislature passes measures clarifying the use of protective orders, affording shelters a role in assisting the children of family violence victims, and eliminating the spousal exemption for charges of aggravated sexual assault.
1989	The U.S. has 1,200 battered women programs which shelter 300,000 women and children per year.
	The Texas Legislature passes 10 bills related to family violence and increases the family violence program budget to $5.47 million per year which includes contracts with 56 shelters.
	The Texas Legislature creates the Battering Intervention and Prevention Project, allocating $400,000 per year for 15 programs to work with violent men.
Late 1980’s	The “battered women’s syndrome” is first used as a defense for a lesbian killing her partner. Annette Green is convicted of first degree murder of her partner Ivonne Julio in Palm Beach, Florida. The judge allows the “battered women’s syndrome” defense changing it to “battered person defense.” The defense attributes the verdict to homophobia.
1990’s	District Attorney’s Office begins to adopt a “no-drop” policy, in which the prosecutor clarifies to the victim and the defendant that the prosecutor, not the victim, is in charge of the case, and that the victim is unable to get the charges dropped.
	States begin to clarify statutorily that Battered Women’s Syndrome (BWS) can be the basis for a recommendation for parole or a grant of clemency, and mandate training on domestic violence and BWS for the parole board. Prosecutors begin to use BWS to obtain convictions of batterers. It is also used as a defense when women kill their batterers.
	The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) begins to recognize domestic violence as grounds for asylum in the U.S.
1990	A survey of several hundred therapists regarding domestic violence cases reveals that 55% said they would not intervene if they suspected or had knowledge of battering in a client’s relationship. Fourteen percent said they would work on the couples “communication style.”
	Forty-eight states have enacted or revamped injunctions that enable courts to refrain men from abusing, harassing and assaulting the women with whom they live. Emergency protection orders outside of normal court hours can be obtained in 23 states.
	Studies show that 1 out of 7 wives report being raped by their husband; 2/3 of the rapes occurred more than once.
	In 23 states, police officers may arrest on “probable cause” in cases of simple or minor assault within the home. A few states and cities go further by imposing a mandatory duty to arrest the violent offender.
1991	The Texas Legislature nearly doubles the family violence program budget to $9.1 million. Governor Ann Richards signs a resolution allowing the governor to grant clemency to women who have been imprisoned for crimes relating to their experiences as battered women.
1992	The U.S. Surgeon General ranks abuse by husbands to be the leading cause of injuries to women aged 15 to 44.
	The FBI reports that 1,431 women were killed by husbands or boyfriends.
	The American Medical Association releases guidelines suggesting that doctors screen women for signs of domestic violence.
	Nineteen states require arrest for violation of an order of protection.
1993	The United Nations recognizes domestic violence as an international human rights issue and issues a Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women. A similar resolution is issued by the Organization of American States.
1994	Texas has 60 shelters being supported by state funds.
	Congress passes the Violence Against Women Act, part of the federal Crime Victims Act, which funds services for victims of rape and domestic violence, allows women to seek civil rights remedies for gender-related crimes, and provides training to increase police and court officials’ sensitivity.
1996	There are over 1,200 battered women’s shelters across the United States sponsored by approximately 1,800 domestic violence agencies.
	Texas allocates a record $10.3 million to 63 shelters.
	In Texas, the National Domestic Violence Hotline opens with a million dollar grant from the US Department of Health and Human Services. The hotline answers 8000 calls per month.
	To date, only 11 states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Wisconsin) and the District of Columbia have completely repudiated the marital rape exemption. Seven states (Lousiana, Missouri, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah) recognize marital rape exemption unless the parties are separated. Illinois and Mississippi retain total exemptions for marital rape. In California, a husband can be prosecuted for aggravated or first degree rape, but still retains immunity from prosecution for “lesser” attacks.
1997	The Texas Legislature increases the family violence program budget to $12.1 million per year. The Batterers’ Program budget increases to a record $700,000 per year.
	The National Domestic Violence Hotline, answered in Austin, Texas, answers its 100,000th call on April 19th.
1998	The National Domestic Violence Hotline answers its 200,000th call.
	Department of Health Services, Maternal and Child Health, Domestic Violence Section, conducted statewide Teen Needs Assessment in recognition of the problem of violence among youth, especially teen relationship violence.
1999	October is deemed Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Activities recognizing victims of domestic violence and the movement to stop domestic and family violence including The Silent Witness Project, a national demonstration using mannequins in public places to represent the many who have died at the hands of abusive partners; Take Back The Night demonstrations; the popular project for children “Hands Are Not For Hitting”; and The Clothes Line Project, a public arts demonstration in which t-shirts are hung out on clothes lines and decorated with statements about relationship abuse.
	The Texas Legislature increases the family violence program budget to $22 million. The batters’ program budget increases to $1.25 million annually.