More than refuge: Changing responses to domestic violence

Women's refuges in the 1970s were lonely voices speaking out about violence in the home. They provided crisis accommodation, and refuge staff worked with women to empower them to take control of their lives. But refuges did more than deliver these important services: they worked to politicize domestic violence. Politicians and bureaucrats began to take notice from the 1980s and, over time, service responses have improved. Significantly, too, women's tolerance of violence has decreased. In More than Refuge, Suellen Murray traces these changing responses to domestic violence, using Nardine Women's Refuge in Western Australia as a case study. She also reminds us that domestic violence flourishes within an environment of unequal gender power relationships and that, for this reason, its elimination will take more than a refuge.