Over the last 5 years I have seen the term "wife beating" change into "domestic violence", "husband" or "boyfriend" into "partner" or "spouse". People at all levels of power co-operate with this obscuring of who has power and who suffers the violence.
In September of 1999, feminist frontline anti-violence workers and some of our allies from equality seeking women's groups met to discuss and debate and determine what critical issues related to violence against women are facing in British Columbia.
The 99 Federal Steps to End Violence Against Women was accepted by the National Action Committee on the Status of Women. For more than twenty years, the National Action Committee on the Status of Women has worked with front line anti-violence organizations within the women's movement to identify and fight the social forces and public policies supporting the violence which continues to damage and destroy the bodies and lives of women and girls.
Trauma and Recovery uses Herman's research in domestic violence as well as on the vast literature of combat veterans and victims of political terror, to show the parallels between private terrors such as rape and public traumas such as terrorism. The book puts individual experience in a broader political frame, arguing that psychological trauma can be understood only in a social context.
The relative power of men compared to that of women is profoundly affected by sexist violence against women. Men have, and do use, this violence to get or keep control of women as a display of power. More than the individual exchange is affected; the power of all men over women is increased. Virtually every woman fears male violence at some time.
