GLORIA STEINEM SITS IN FRONT OF A BOOK CASE TALKING SERIOUSLY ABOUT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Gloria Steinem 0:00
They have been thrown down flights of stairs strangled until they lost consciousness kicked or beaten in the stomach and genitals, sometimes while and especially because they were pregnant. These are not beatings that were suffered by women in concentration camps or in the streets at the hands of muggers, and strangers. These beatings happened in the privacy of women's own kitchens and bedrooms, at the hands of men they were married to or dependent on emotionally and financially as husbands. Some of the women were beaten in front of their own children. Those who were battered while pregnant were victimized by the very men who had made them pregnant. A few of the women might have been in this film, if they had lived to tell their stories. Many more might have appeared, had they not been too frightened of their husbands revenge to speak out, or too frightened even to turn for help to the women's shelter in which this documentary was filmed. The reality you see is a shocking one, in part because our television shows and even our law enforcement agencies have led us to believe that most violence to women happens in the street. In fact, most of the violence happens in the home. Yet the home is precisely the place most likely to be thought private and none of our business by the police and the rest of the community alike. It is precisely the place where women are the most tied by financial dependence, pride, loyalty, or an unwillingness to leave their children. And indeed, where can a woman find protection from a vengeful husband whose crime of wife battering, if it is taken seriously by the police at all, is usually a misdemeanor, which allows him freedom a few hours after her arrest. If she has limited financial resources, where can she go? This documentary is about one of the few such places a woman shelter in England started in 1971, which is a model for groups now setting up similar shelters in this country. British women have pioneered in recognizing this shameful and submerged problem. But wife battering is a fact of life in this country too. It has been discovered at every economic and educational level. Just as we have begun to recognize the seriousness and the prevalence of rape in the last few years. We are just now beginning to understand the reality of battered wives. At the close of this documentary, I will share with you more facts on the prevalence of wife battering in this country. Understanding the true and hidden dimensions of this problem is the first step toward understanding what we want you and I can do

SHORT PORTION OF FILM STEINEM IS DISCUSSING. **CAN'T USE**