Campus Crime Update

Women's group gives scholarships

By Romina Kim

News Reporter

Progress in fighting violence against women should not lull society into complacency, even though great strides have been made, Wisconsin history professor Linda Gordon said Friday during a conference at the UH Law Center.

Gordon, a noted author, women's rights activist and professor at the University of Wisconsin and New York University, was the keynote speaker at the Tenneco Community Symposium.

"It's not always easy to recognize progress when we see it because it is human to look forward," she said. "So once we recognize that change, we also need to understand how it took place (and) who brought it up, or we just slip into thinking that it just happened."

Gordon has for the past five years been an active member of the National Advisory Council on Violence against Women, created in the 1994 Violence against Women Act, to promote a greater awareness and devise solutions to the problem of violence and its victims.

She said the fact that the council exists speaks to the nation's growing awareness of violence against women. For years, she said, crimes committed against women -- especially domestic violence -- were resolved informally, and the victims had no place to turn to for help.

"Much of this violence, although technically illegal, was not fully recognized as a crime, and its perpetrators were not usually prosecuted," Gordon said. "And without that enforcement, its victims were denied their citizenship rights."

Despite the lack of recognition of crimes against women, national movements against alcoholism and child abuse, as well as changes in divorce, custody practices and birth control helped build a foundation for anti-violence work.

The creation of the welfare program -- the idea that the federal government would support women with children -- was a bold move by the federal government and a "lifesaver" for women, Gordon said.

"It stiffened their backs, so to speak, encouraging them to stand for themselves and to reject violence because they knew that survival outside the marriage was possible," she said.

The women's rights movement has worked hard since then to ensure that mothers and their children are safe from violent environments. As a result, every state now has laws making domestic violence a crime.

Gordon said the progress has led to a change in women's attitudes.

"A century ago, for example, battered women would stay with their husbands," she said. "Today, they might be seen as being masochistic. Women who were assaulted on the streets were urged to stay home. Today, they might join a night watch."

Although the threat of violence against women has not died, Gordon said the fact that such acts are now considered crimes is "a major victory for women, for humanity and, I would say, for democracy."

Friday's symposium was organized by the Law Center and the College of Humanities, Fine Arts and Communication.