Battered Women

Abstract

“Battered women” became a recognizable identity and platform for activism as the Battered Women's Movement emerged during the second wave of feminism in the 1970s and 1980s. Theoretical understandings of battered women have evolved from psychological assessments of learned helplessness to models that view battered women as survivors operating within larger systems of oppression. Legal changes since the 1970s have defined battering as a crime and battered women as victims eligible for criminal and civil justice remedies. Most recently, the term “battered women” has become limited in its ability to account for an expanded, intersectional understanding of those who have suffered from intimate partner violence, including transgender people and men.