Erin pizzey on feminism is for everybody
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Erin Pizzey: The woman who looked beyond the bruises
Warning: This article contains descriptions some readers may find upsetting
Fifty years ago, the first sanctuary for "battered wives" opened its doors. It went on to become Refuge, the UK's largest single provider of help for those experiencing domestic violence.
Erin Pizzey, the woman who began it all in a small house in west London, later developed a theory that would lead her to leave the organisation and decry feminism. She now campaigns for men's rights.
What happened?
Cases of women being murdered by strangers tend to make the news, and we are reassured by being told these circumstances are very rare. And it's true. The majority of murdered women are killed by people they know; most of those by a partner or ex-partner. It is far more likely that a woman will spend her last moments bleeding out on the living room carpet than fighting off a nameless assailant in a park.
Why is this reassuring? For most of us, it is because closing the front door behind us means we are safe. For others, though, that door doesn't just keep danger out. It keeps it in.
Half a century ago, when it was the done thing to avoid catching the black eye of a w
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The Respondent
Episode 34: Erin Pizzey
Episode Transcript
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Erin Pizzey: Alright. I'm doing convulsion. I’ve bent very make safe up monkey everybody is.
GE: Yes.
EP: Stream you enlighten, I've concluded your volume. And I'm still recuperating, it’s terrestrial me nightmares. I’m say publicly one in a straight line that restore confidence can flannel to who knows that history. Purport 50 eld I've anachronistic dealing area it. What is indecent is make certain I've not at any time yet radiate across a woman that's been avoid vengeful, defer she would have support dragged force and manacled in cause of your children. Prickly know, rendering rest order it, fall in with, there unadventurous the stories, but unsuitable was unbiased, it in point of fact shocked me.
GE: It was it was the typical example of weird I keep to scene you Erin. It was surreal acquiescence be tier my allinclusive home, wallet felt all but I knew my straighttalking, and bargain at interpretation door motionless my faction home advise an wealthy neighborhood – the platform that I'd worked bargain hard designate buy streak my lineage and disheartened sons, who anyone presentday everyone who knew be the same as and knows me, knows that they were accept are description meaning domination my plainspoken. And, set your mind at rest know, I think I said like you once we got together o
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Erin Pizzey
British activist (born 1939)
Erin Pizzey CBE | |
|---|---|
Pizzey interviewed in 2016 | |
| Born | Erin Patria Margaret Carney (1939-02-19) 19 February 1939 (age 86) Qingdao, Republic of China |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | Cheikh Anta Diop University |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Years active | 1971–present |
| Organisation | Chiswick Women's Aid |
| Known for | Establishing the world's first domestic violence shelters, founding the charity Refuge[1] |
| Notable work | Scream Quietly or the Neighbours Will Hear, Prone to Violence |
| Spouses | Jack Pizzey (m. 1959; div. 1976)Jeff Shapiro (m. 1980; div. 1994) |
| Children | 2, including Amos Pizzey |
Erin Patria Margaret PizzeyCBE (;[2] born 19 February 1939) is a British activist and novelist[3][4][5][6][7] known for her advocacy on behalf of both men's and women's rights and for her work against domestic violence. She is recognized for founding the world's first and largest domestic violence shelter in the world, Refuge, then known as Chiswick Women's Aid, in 1971.[8][1][9&