Erin Pizzey
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Erin Pizzey (born 19 February 1939 in China, daughter of a diplomat) is a British family care activist and a best-selling novelist. She became internationally famous for having started one of the first[1] Women's Refuges (called women's shelters in the U.S.) in the modern world in 1971.
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[edit] Overview
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.
According to many webpages, Pizzey has said, or has been quoted as saying[2]: "Men are gentle, honest and straightforward. Women are convoluted, deceptive and dangerous." Contrary to what it may seem from that popular quote, she has not promoted a stance that most women are violent or that women are 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 (full text available online) 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 the modern state care-taking agencies are largely ineffective (one extreme situation was when a woman in the refuge bit off a top of another woman's finger.)
Some internet sources make the 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 thirteen listings in the worldwide.)
After death threats made by feminist activists against her, her children, her grandchildren and the shooting of her dog,[3] Pizzey left New Mexico in the U.S. to return to England where her insights were sought by politicians and family pressure groups.
[edit] Books
[edit] Non Fiction
- Scream Quietly or the Neighbours Will Hear
- Infernal Child (An early memoir)
- Sluts Cookbook
- Erin Pizzey Collects
- Prone to violence ISBN 0-600-20551-7 Out of Print
Full-text available online
- Wild Child
- The Emotional Terrorist and The Violence-prone ISBN 0-88970-103-2 (excerpt)
[edit] 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
[edit] External links
- Erin Pizzey -- Founder of Modern Women's Shelter Movement
- The Planned Destruction of The Family, by Erin Pizzey
- Erin Pizzey, crusader for battered women, by Brian Deer
- MenWeb - Men's Issues. Working with Violent Women by Erin Pizzey
- Prone to Violence by Erin Pizzey
- Why Did My Grandson Die? Original title Fragile by Erin Pizzey
- How feminists tried to destroy the family, by Erin Pizzey
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Haven House in California was founded in 1964, seven years earlier than Pizzey's shelter (see About Haven House).
- ^ One website bearing little connection to her biography claims the source is the 24th August 1988 issue of London Daily Mail.
- ^ Fox news article on Erin Pizzey
