Women, Violence and Social Change is unique among books about violence against women. Focusing on the dynamic relationship between the battered women's movement and the State, the Dobashes show how the demands of the movement were enmeshed in government discourse about the problem and how these discourses in turn led to specific proposals for change. Women, Violence and Social Change demonstrates how refuges and shelters stand as the core of the movement, providing a basis for pragmatic support, political action and radical renewal. From this base movements in Britain and the Unites States have challenged the police, courts and social services tp provide greater assistance to women. The book provides important evidence on the way social movements can successfully challenge institutions of the State as well as salutatory lessons on the nature of diverted and thwarted struggle. Even apparent innovations may be delusory. The Dobashes analyse the development of new therapeutic discorses and technologies aimed at battered women and violent men and show how these have detracted from efforts to assist women and end violence.
They also show how differing national research agendas have played very different roles in the identification and specification of the problem of violence in the family and in particular how some researchers have actually hampered efforts to assist battered women and challenge male violence through muddled conceptions of violence in the family. Throughout the book the Dobashes' years of researching violence against women is illustrated in the depth of their analysis. They maintain the tradition established in their first book, Violence Against Wives, which eas widely accalimed.
