The last fifty years have ushered in transformative change in the legal landscape for victims of intimate violence, thanks to the advocacy of lawyers, advocates, and survivors. In that same half century, we’ve seen rapid progress in the scientific understanding of violence against women. We know more than ever about prevention and intervention, causes and consequences.
Despite the incredible legal and scientific progress, a woman is still sexually assaulted every 90 seconds and another is victimized by a current or former intimate partner. Communities across the country still struggle to meet victims’ health, legal, and social service needs, even as the federal government invests billions in victim services.
We need a new way forward. At least, that’s what I came to believe in writing Every 90 Seconds: Our Common Cause Ending Violence against Women, published this month by Oxford University Press.
You see, across history, we’ve tended to treat violence against women as a women’s issue or a special interest issue; a problem for those who are or may be victimized. Yet, violence against women affects each of us — regardless of our genders, life histories, or professions. After all, it’s tangled up with the great public problems of our time, from healthcare, education, and economic inequities to the urgent need for gun, migration, and legal reform. The pages of Every 90 Seconds bring those interconnections to life, drawing on what I’ve learned through my team’s research and our collaboration with practitioners over decades.
Of course, the sheer complexity of how violence against women interconnects with other persistent and pressing problems could leave us feeling overwhelmed – or it could open the doors to a new way forward. Taking a page from other social movements, the book explores the importance of engaging an ever-expanding network of people who recognize they share a common cause or shared interest for transformational change to be possible. By showing people that violence against women is tangled up with the progress that they want to see in the world – from healthcare to gun violence and education access – we can bring in new people to the work of ending violence against women and discover new approaches to change.
Every 90 Seconds, then, is really an invitation: to you and also to the people in your life who never thought violence against women was their problem. It’s an invitation to discover our shared interest in working together to respond to violence against women through collaboration. Rich with examples and ideas for moving forward, I hope you’ll join me in exploring ways to build a world that none of us has known – one without intimate violence.