By: Whitney Derman

Although it’s been a century since the women’s suffrage movement gave women the privilege to vote in the USA, it was not until the 1970s that women’s rights activists made some headway with combating domestic violence. In the 1960s, literature on Spousal Abuse towards women was virtually non-existent. The only sources that talked about it blamed the wives for provoking their husbands or mental illness. It was agreed at the time that Domestic Abuse was rare, but when it did happen, it was the woman’s fault (Library of Science and Medicine, 2015).

Unfortunately, Domestic Violence and Abuse were seen as private matters of the home and were normal, accepted, and even laughed about, as reflected in an early 1970s ad for a Michigan bowling alley. “HAVE SOME FUN,” the copy read in bold letters, “BEAT YOUR WIFE TONIGHT” (Library of Science and Medicine, 2015). At the time, American culture was based on a clear and distinct separation of the home and public spheres. Women were expected to stay in the private sphere and men in the public sphere, so no one spoke about or thought it acceptable to talk about personal matters — meaning Domestic Violence was largely ignored. It was also seen religiously as a sin to break up the family, an attitude that is still largely believed today.

Starting in the mid-1970s, a group of women’s rights activists and formerly abused women came together to create the Battered Women’s Movement to “expose Domestic Violence against women, provide shelter and support, and demand radical change from the law, medicine, and society” (Library of Science and Medicine, 2015). As a result of their efforts “legislative bodies began to modernize their definitions, with the term ‘Domestic Violence’ first being used in 1973” (Rudnick et al., 2020). However, it was not until 1994 when Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act, introduced by Joe Biden and championed by him ever since. Domestic Violence became a national crime (Culp-Ressler, 2014).

The Violence Against Women Act aimed to “provide more institutional resources for domestic violence victims” (Culp-Ressler, 2014). To accomplish this, the law helped fund more rape crisis centers and Domestic Violence shelters across the country, established the National Domestic Violence Hotline, and provided funding for efforts to prevent crime, such as expanding youth education programs. These programs educate youth about what constitutes dating violence, implementing safety measures on public transportation, and requiring the government to conduct more research into Domestic Violence to better understand the scope of the problem (Culp-Ressler, 2014).

So, how have things changed in the last nearly 30 years since the Violence Against Women Act was passed? Unfortunately, the law was allowed to expire in 2019, which was a massive setback for women’s rights. Currently, “the Rhode Island legislature is in the process of changing its rape law to remove a provision that allows men to rape their wives, so long as their wives are drunk and helpless” (Murphy, 2021). The current law allows spousal rape of wives who are drunk, disabled, sickly, mentally ill, unconscious, or any other factor that would prevent her from giving proper consent. Even if he records the act and there is undeniable proof of the incident, it is still legal and does not need to be reported by the police (Murphy, 2021). Similar laws currently exist in Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Nevada (Murphy, 2021). Until women have equal protection in the US Constitution, it is unlikely this issue will be resolved anytime soon.

To learn more about different types of abuse, visit GoARO.org, and please consider donating to help support our efforts.

Sources

Culp-Ressler, T. (2014, September 12). “How the country has changed under the violence against women act.” ThinkProgress. https://archive.thinkprogress.org/how-the-country-has-changed-under-the-violence-against-women-act-2348c358dbda/.

Murphy, W. (2021, June 27). “Wendy Murphy: Way past time to change laws that allow marital rape.” Boston Herald. https://www.bostonherald.com/2021/06/27/wendy-murphy-way-past-time-to-change-laws-that-allow-marital-rape/.

National Institutes of Health. (2015, October 15). “Domestic violence in the 1970s — circulating now from NLM.” U.S. National Library of Medicine. https://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2015/10/15/domestic-violence-in-the-1970s/.

Rudnick, Addoniziio, Pappa , & Casazza . (2020, July 1). “A brief history and overview of domestic violence.” Rudnick Law. https://www.rudnicklaw.com/blog/history-domestic-violence/