Erin Pizzey

Erin Pizzey (born February 19, 1939 in China, daughter of a diplomat) became internationally famous for having started one of the first Women's Refuges (called women's shelters in the US) in the modern world in 1971. She began in the Goldhawk Road, West London where abused women were offered tea, sympathy and a place to stay for them and their children. The demand for a service for women survivors of domestic violence grew and soon public funding became available. Today the movement has been rebranded as Women's Aid and garners millions of pounds a year from a variety of sources although primarily from the state. Erin Pizzey parted company with the movement owing to a difference of opinion regarding its underlying philosophy.

Many, including Pizzey herself, have claimed that Pizzey founded the modern women's shelter movement, that her Women's Refuge was the first in the modern world, or both. These claims do not appear to be true. For example, Haven House in California was founded in 1964, seven years earlier than Pizzey's shelter.

Contrary to what it may seem from the popular quote (see below), she has not promoted a stance that most women were violent or that women were more violent than men. Her view is opposed by those who placed the blame solely upon prevailing patriarchal attitudes. She lamented that the movement she started had moved from the personal to the political.

In her book Prone to Violence she propounded the theory that many of the women who took refuge had a personality such that they sought abusive relationships. The book contains numerous stories of disturbed families alongside a discussion of the reasons why are the modern state care-taking agencies largely ineffective. (Some of the described events are quite shocking; the most extreme is probably the situation in which a woman in the refuge bit off a top of another woman's finger.) Some internet sources make a highly controversial claim that Prone to Violence was suppressed by feminists (a search of all libraries in the world that could be accessed from the US Library of Congress through the Inter-Library Network in 1996 revealed a total of only 13 listings in the whole World.)

After death threats against her, her children, her grandchildren and the shooting of her dog, Pizzey left England for North America. She returned to London in the 1990s where her insights were sought by politicians and family pressure groups.

Contents

1 Books 1.1 Non Fiction 1.2 Fiction 2 Quote 3 External links

Books

Non Fiction

• Scream Quietly or the Neighbours Will Hear
• Infernal Child (An early memoir)
• Sluts Cookbook
• Erin Pizzey Collects
• Prone to violence ISBN 0600205517 Out of Print

Fulltext available online http://www.bennett.com/ptv/

• Wild Child
• The Emotional Terrorist and The Violence-prone ISBN 0889701032 (excerpt) (http://www.dvmen.org/dv-119.htm)

Fiction

• The Watershed
• In the Shadow of the Castle
• The Pleasure Palace (in manuscript)
• First Lady
• Counsul General’s Daughter
• The Snow Leopard of Shanghai
• Other Lovers
• Swimming with Dolphins
• For the Love of a Stranger
• Kisses
• The Wicked World of Women
• The Fame Game (work in progress)
• The Lifestyle of an International Best selling Author

Quote

Men are gentle, honest and straightforward. Women are convoluted, deceptive and dangerous. -- Quoted in the London Daily Mail, 24 August 1988[1] (http://www.speakeasy.org/~dbrick/Melrose/94-05-11melrose.html)

External links

• Erin Pizzey - Speakers Biography - Celebrity Speakers International Limited (http://www.speakers.co.uk/Retro/5307.htm)
• Erin Pizzey -- Founder of Modern Women's Shelter Movement (http://www.fathersforlife.org/pizzey/pizzey.htm)
• History of Haven House (http://www.havenhousela.com/aboutus/index.htm)
• The Planned Destruction of The Family, by Erin Pizzey (http://www.fathersforlife.org/pizzey/destrctn.htm)
• Erin Pizzey, crusader for battered women, by Brian Deer (http://briandeer.com/social/erin-pizzey.htm)
• MenWeb - Men's Issues. Working with Violent Women (http://www.menweb.org/pizzey.htm) by Erin Pizzey
• Why Did My Grandson Die? (http://www.fathersforlife.org/pizzey/fragile.htm) Original title Fragile by Erin Pizzey