In 1971, Erin Pizzey set up the first domestic abuse shelter. Why is she now a men's rights advocate?
was passed, stopping lenders from requiring women to have male co-signers on loans.
One day a woman arrived with her children and a body covered in boot print-shaped bruises. "No-one will help me", she said. The phrase touched a nerve with Ms Pizzey, who remembers feeling the same way when she was a teenager. Ms Pizzey's father was perhaps more straightforward. He was an angry, violent man who looked up to his own angry, violent father. He was a heavy smoker as well as a drinker, and refused to take baths as he believed they were "weakening". He was easy to smell, another trigger for Pizzey.
And so, as that first woman peeled off her jumper to show her emaciated figure, red and black and blue with injuries, and uttered those same desperate words, Chiswick Women's Aid was unexpectedly born.One of the reasons many women did not leave violent households was the fear of abandoning their childrenNotices were placed in newspapers, reading: "Victims of domestic violence? Need help?" alongside a telephone number.
"We filled every place we opened, as soon as we opened. We had women sleeping against the walls with their heads between their knees and children like sardines on mattresses on the floor; we cooked for everyone using food donated by local businesses and just tried to keep spirits high.
This too, resonated with Ms Pizzey. She knew what it was like to come from a domineering household. She can remember "freezing" when she heard the warning note of her father spitting phlegm into the flowerbed immediately before putting his key in the lock.
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