Each year more than 10 million persons are abused by an intimate partner; this includes physical violence, stalking, and/or rape. On a minute by minute basis, this amounts to 20-24 persons per minute. On a lifetime basis, 1 in 4 women and 1 in 9 men experience partner violence. Perhaps even more stunning: it is estimated that there is a 50% underreporting rate!
The above does not include mental, emotional, and/or economic abuse, which are seen as “widespread,” not to mention, exceedingly more insidious, and often not regarded as abuse.
I have lived eight decades as an American citizen, and nothing has really changed. Throughout the history of the U.S., women have characteristically initiated, organized, and led numerous reform movements. Among them include:
The Abolition of Slavery (Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Maria Stewart); Labor Rights and Workplace Safety (Rose Schneiderman); Child Welfare, Public Health, and Education Reform (Jane Addams, Lillian Wald); Political Rights and Women’s Suffrage (Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Ida B. Wells, Alice Paul); Civil Rights — grassroots level (Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks), Reproductive Rights and Body Autonomy (Margaret Sanger), Peace and Anti-War Movements, Environmental Justice (Rachel Carson); and there are even more.
Undeniably the majority of perpetrators are men, so it is then that I ask, “Men, when will you step up and begin to put an end to this travesty, this inhuman and indignant behavior?” We need you … only you can do this.
Mary Kay Mattiace
Turners Falls