Erin Pizzey, pioneer in domestic violence

Erin Pizzey pioneered activism against domestic violence. In 1971, she created the Chiswick Shelter in London, UK, one of the world’s first shelters for battered women.

Early in her work in Chiswick, she noticed that many of the women who came to her shelters were “prone to violence”. They sought out abusive relationships and committed a significant amount of violence themselves. Often their violent ways triggered their partner’s abuse against them. Worse yet, these families raised their children to be a new generation of abusers addicted to violent behavior.

Pizzey wrote several books about his experiences and findings. One of his first jobs was prone to violence which explained the patterns of violent families that she observed. Additionally, she talked about how the women in these families were often just as violent or even more violent than the men.

The “fake” feminists of the time were aggravated by Pizzey’s breaking the silence on female abusers. They worked hard to suppress her writings. Copies of prone to violence in libraries and bookstores were allegedly widely destroyed by feminists bent on censoring the revelation that battered women are often abusive.

Pizzey’s findings did not fit the feminist worldview, so for her purposes they had to be suppressed. Reportedly, the book’s original publisher was bankrupted by his actions. While it’s hard to find many of Pizzey’s books in print today, a new Canadian publisher has taken over the printing of prone to violence Recently. Most of the book’s text is available online at Menweb.org

In more recent years, Pizzey has expanded his efforts to spread the word about “emotional terrorists,” abusive women, and violent families through the Internet and in collaboration with other activists and writers. She has continued her work by opening shelters for victims of domestic violence and advocating for reform to address the true roots of family violence. She remains firmly convinced that men are not the only ones to blame for domestic violence. Instead, she believes that domestic violence is spread by violent families consisting of violent abusers of one and both genders who infect their children with an addiction to violence.

Unfortunately, too many people have yet to hear of his work. The popular but misguided propaganda of “blaming men for everything” still reigns supreme. I encourage you to help the children of the future by spreading the word about Erin Pizzey’s findings and efforts to help stop family violence.