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bornes showed violence against
women occurs in all social classes,
educational and professional
groups."
·
From one of our offices in Africa
comes this published summary:
"African women have learned a
painful lesson about the liberation
of their continent from colonial
domination. They're still in bond–
age-to their menfolk. And the
continent's men, traditionally abso–
lute masters over their wives, want
to keep it that way."
That report continued, "Men
are up in arms over suggestions
... that husbands should be taken
to court if they beat their
wives."
One postal clerk in Zimbabwe
responded to a survey on wife beat–
ing, "You cannot talk sense to a
woman who nags or is lazy. You
must take a stick to her back. That
is the custom and all the family
agrees."
On August 21, 1983, the Los
Angeles
Times
reported the results
of a Gallup poli taken in South
Korea.
1
n answer to the question,
"Have you ever beaten your wife?"
more than 61 percent of the South
Korean men who were asked said
yes. Fewer than 1 percent refused
to reply to the question.
To further demonstrate the
worldwide nature of this problem
the official reports from the Swed–
ish Central Bureau of Statistics for
the calendar year 1982 reported
these figures: Assault and battery
not leading to death and reported to
the police involved 28,200 persons
(Sweden's population is about eight
mili ion).
Swedish criminologist Leif G.W.
Persson estimates that between
2,500 and 3,000 cases of wife beat–
ing are reported to the police each
year, but sorne 30,000 cases of wife
beating are known. He estimates
there may be more than 250,000
cases of wife beating in Sweden
annually. Between 40 and 60 women
are beaten to death each year in
Sweden. Yet of all these cases fewer
than 400 convictions are made and Qf
them only sorne 20 percent go to jail.
For an explanation of the causes of
Sweden!s social problems, see inter–
view beginning page 22.
One of the Ieading figures in the
campaign against women's abuse is
28
Englishwoman Erin Pizzey. After
living outside England most of her
life, she finally settled back in Brit–
ain in 1960.
In 1971 she founded a group
called Women's Aid and has since
set up a number of shelters for
battered women. One of her books
shockingly entitled
Scream Quiet–
ly or the Neighbors Wi/1 Hear
recounts the horror stories of
scores of British women and chil–
dren who have sought shelter
from both physical and mental
abuse.
-
Since the ftedgling beginning of
her first "safe house" or shelter,
every one that has been opened was
almost immediately filled. There is
a constant search for property and
Safe houses, shelters for
battered women,
bornes for abused children
are only a small
part of the
answer
...
noble causes
that help as many as
they can.
funding to establish more. Such is
the problem in Britain.
And the United States has equal–
ly staggering statistics.
During the period when nearly
39,000 American soldiers died in a
futile, dirty conflict in Vietnam
(between 1967 and 1973), 17,570
women and children died on the
home front from family violence.
Read the evidence for yourself in
one of the most recent books on
family abuse,
The Family Secret,
written by William Stacy and
Anson Shupe.
According to FBI statistics, a
wife is beaten every 30 seconds in
the United States. That's more
than one million a year!
But before we draw the inaccu–
rate conclusion that violence is lim–
ited to men against women, we
need to realize that another facet of
the secret sin that often goes unre–
ported is, strange as it may sound,
husband beating.
In another recent book on the
subject of violence, sociologist
Suzanne Steinmetz of the Universi–
ty of Delaware has written a book
entitled
The Cycle of Violence.
She
estimates from her studies that
each year more than one-quarter
million American husbands are
beaten and injured each year in
domestic violence.
Need we go further to demon–
strate what a terrible and tragic
problem this is all around the
world?
To Solve a Problem
Public awareness of this problem is
very recent. Few books were pub–
lished on battered women before
1970. Sorne of the best-known
books are the aforementioned
Scream Quietly
published in 1974;
Battered Women
by Marian Roy in
1977;
The Battered Woman
by
Lenore Walker in 1979; and
The
Family Secret
by Stacy and Shupe
in 1983.
All of these books tell the sor–
rowful stories of broken-up mar–
riages, women and children driven
from their bornes, broken bones
and bruised bodies left in a wake of
unparalleled family violence. They
all point out how little has been
done until recent years to alleviate
the suffering.
Now communities, civic groups,
law enforcement agencies, con–
cerned neighbors, local, state and
national governments are striving
to help. Funds are donated and
taxes are allocated to help in a vari–
ety of ways. Hot line or emergency
telephone groups are set up to help
those in trouble. Counseling cen–
ters have been established. Safe
houses or shelters have been set up
where abused women and children
can seek refuge.
Yet the surface barely has been
scratched in solving the problem.
Only a small percentage of the
abused know how to seek help or
have the courage to make the first
step by calling a minister, social
worker, doctor or the police.
Unless checked, family abuse
threatens the very fiber of society.
lt
is only one of many scourges in a
satanically influenced world that
The PLAIN TRUTH