A Case Study of a Battered Wife

Betty, 27 year old with two children, left her husband several months ago after a night of terror during which she was scratched, beaten around the body and head, held down and screamed at for several hours. She is now on a DPB. Her husband has broken the door of her flat down and she now has a non-molestation order against him.

Q: How long had the beatings been going on?

A: For over 7 years. They started a year after we were married and continued on and off until I left.

Q: Why did he beat you?

A: For all sorts of reasons; the house was untidy or I butted in, stupid reasons. I got to the stage where I never answered back or irritated him. But I always got on his nerves.

Q: Did he drink?

A: No he was always sober.

Q: Didn't you call the police?

A: No I felt that maybe it would get better and he'd stop. I loved him.

Q: Why didn't you leave earlier?

A: I did leave twice, but I always went back. I didn't really have anywhere to go with 2 kids. Once some friends of ours were staying and they heard him beat me up but they didn't try to help. They heard it all but they didn't do anything. I was so depressed in the morning I tried to commit suicide. The doctors at the hospital asked me what all the bruises were on my body. When I told them they wanted me to lay a complaint against my husband and leave him. They made him see a psychiatrist, but all he did was precribe pills to make him sleep and keep him calm. He wouldn't take them.

Q: Are you happier now you've left?

A: Much. I can't believe the peace. It's lonely — but I'm getting used to that.

Q: Hasn't he tried to assault you since you left?

A: Yes but this time I called the police. They weren't interested though. They wouldn't lay a complaint because my non-molestation order hadn't gone through then. They were so careless about it I couldn't believe it.

I believe this interview is fairly typical of assaulted women. There seems to be no logical patterns or socio-economic levels at which assaults are more evident. The attitude of the police is appalling. They told this woman that it was "her marriage".

The questions faces us. . . . what is the reason for the large and mostly hidden numbers of wife beatings. While men hold power over their wives economically and sexually and still regard women in terms of ownership, women as an oppressed gender are open to abuse. Women are often not in the position to be able to up and leave their husbands. It takes a tremendous amount of courage to leave home when you have two kids, no money and nowhere to go.

But wife beating is not a subject that can be looked at in isolation. It is a societal problem. Under capitalism the role of women is to be the homemaker, the one that feeds, clothes, sustains the worker and sends him back into the workforce to be exploited. Is it any wonder under the economic conditions today that men are driven to take their frustrations out on a scape-goat. While in no way can men be excused for the tyranny and brutality that they have brought into women's lives, it is important not to isolate the wrong enemy.

Heather Worth.