History and Memories of the Domestic Violence Movement

Gill Hague is Professor Emerita of Violence Against Women Studies at the University of Bristol and has been an activist, practitioner and researcher on violence against women nationally and internationally since the early 1970s. She was a founder of the Centre for Gender and Violence Research, School for Policy Studies at University of Bristol and has over 130 publications on violence against women including eight books. Hague has received both a CBE and an Emma Humphreys Memorial Prize for her life’s work on gender violence.

• IntroductionEverything seemed to change at once: women’s liberation and the women’s movement(s) from the 1960sWomen’s liberation: strands, debates, transformationsThe violence against women movements burst into lifeTaking on rape and sexual violence, as well as domestic abuseA radical women’s politics: the light of innovation and new ways to organiseWider feminist principles and domestic violence: making a new worldAs time went on: the movements on domestic violence and harmful practices growStruggling to change: campaigns, laws, and local and global strategiesActivist responses, justice and shelters (refuges) across the worldExpanding the movements, gaining the evidence: feminist research and transnational actionEnd word