It is understandable when women who have been battered by men become 'men-haters' and come to believe that it is just their nature'. This however does not explain the increase in wite-battering, or its absence in some other societies. Nor themselves feel. It is something which can only be explained in terms of the general sexist and class oppression of our society.
There is enormous pressure on us to conform to certain sex-linked roles - through the way we've been brought up by our parents, our education at school, the books and comics we read, the television programmes and adverts we see. The sex-role stereotypes to which women are 'urged' to conform are of a passive, dependent, somewhat helpless, sexy, "attractive" young female who is only really fulfilled by getting married and having children and engaging in perhaps a few harmless, home-centred hobbies. The male is encouraged to be strong, dominant, independent, unemotional, aggressive and virile, who is fulfilled by getting an education and then a good job.
Those who don't conform to these roles in obvious ways - such as 'fat' or 'ugly' girls, spinsters, or men with obvious feminine characteristics - suffer for it by being made the object of jokes and being generAid We would like to point out several important tactors inar were not raised in your anticie on battered women ano ine take-over ov cniswick women s Aid of the Court Hotel in Richmond.
ror the Dast two vears Ine nichmond Women's Action Group has been trying to get the Council to give them a house as a refuge for battered women out nave nao no success.Although the inaction of local councils often makes squatting the only means of providing refuges, Chiswick Women's Aid never attempted to consult the Richmond group as to how the take-over would affect their struggles with Richmond Council. Co-operative efforts between the Women's Aid groups is essential in the rignt tor supDort ano tinancial alc trom the state and local authorities, this being one of the main motivations for the setting up of the National Women's Aid FedThe question of an 'open door policv in runnine a battered women's refuge is also an issue which received no explanation in your article. It is impossible for any refuge to operate successfully a complete 'open door policy. The number of battered wo men wno neec accommocation at ret udes tar exceeds ine soace avalable in existing refuges. This means that in a situation where no woman is turned ally left out of things. This is seen most clearly in the case of homosexuals, whose very sexuality represents a threat to the 'normal' prescribed sex roles. So homosexuals are ostra: cised and told they are sick.
Most of us conform to these roles, albeit unconciously, even though for many of us they conflict with our own inclinations. This can and often does give rise to marital strife. woman is often frustrated by having to be financially and legally dependent on her husband. She wearies of being tied to the home, of having to do an uninspiring and low paid job that doesn't realise her potential. Invariably she has to face the main responsibility of looking after the childTCH.
Agressive
The man is also often frustrated by such things. He has to take legal and financial responsibility for a wife and children. He has to suppress his emotions, and live up to the image of masculinity and virility that is expected of him. Each sex is brought up to expect that their partner will fulfill the prescribed role, and often unintentionally puts unbearable pressure on the other to do so.
For the man, this frustration (or his failure, as he, his wife, or others sex roles bestere emotionally "weak, or thinks he's sexually 'incompetent')
as this is seen as a specifically masc une annoure. assert his masculinity he will often dependent on him, which he can usually do by using his superior physical strength on her. That this gives some men temporary relief is often become "loving' and remorsetearful state.
makes it easier to divide labour on sex lines. There has been a sexual division of labour in most cultures, of the workforce lower wages Chestertor to work anyway.
see it, to live up to society's expectations because he is out of work, feels can lead him to try and compensate by being overbearing and aggressive, especially in an antempt to try to make his wife seem weak and system.
perhaps shown by the fact that they ful once the wife is in a battered and Having clearly defined sex roles but this division has intensified under capitalism, benefiting the ruling class in a number of ways. It has enabled the ruling class to pay a large section things are. fied on the assumption that they don't need the money because they're not the 'bread-winners' and that they don't really have the right Thus they are also used as a reserve labour force. In these respects, as in many others, the position of women is very similar to that of black and coloured people.
Another advantage to capitalism is that, by fulfilling their role as wives and mothers within the context of the family, they perform work in the home which is essential, both economically and ideologically, to the maintenance of the capitalist Divisions Furthermore, it always benefits capitalism to have divisions in the working class whether they be on the basis of sex, colour, nationality, religion or whatever. In the case of sex it is a 50/50 division, and all divisions in the working class undermine its collective strength The lack of help that battered wives get from doctors, social workers and public figures like councillors is not simply due to a lack of finance and facilities - important as these The great majority of of them do nothing more than perpetuate the oppression of women.
Unfortunately many good trade union militants also do not understand the oppression of women (or gays for that matter) or its significance for the working class as a whole and so they effectively help the ruling class in its 'divide and rule' tactics by maintaining the economic and social differences between men and women. By trying to preserve their own position - for example, when trade unionists oppose training for women for fear of competition for their better paid jobs - they are preserving the status quo and thus the basis of their own exploitation It is not surprising that the crisis of capitalism is reflected today in marriage and the family. Capitalism needs to reinforce the family and the "traditional' roles of the sexes, and so many of the gains that have been made by women are now being threat enea — suca as aborton, nursery pro vision and further education opporIntensification At the same time many men and women face unemployment, and the
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for that matter does it explain the oppression that many men