The problem of battered women has only come into the limelight in the past few years, its progression toward public awareness paralleling the growth of the women's movement. Historically, there has never been any public outcry against the brutality of battered women. But now we are learning the problem is far more pervasive and terrible than it was ever thought to be and that the myths which had previously rationalized why such violence occurred between men and women who supposedly loved each other are untrue. .
Every minute in the United States, four women are beaten by a significant other. More than half of all female homicide victims in 1993 were killed by a current or former partner. The Handbook of Family Violence identified five major types of family violence and ranked spouse abuse as almost equal in incidence with physical child abuse, which was ranked number one (Gilliland, James 1997). .
All the myths on the battering of women have perpetuated the mistaken notion that the victim has precipitated her own assault. Some of them served as a protection against embarrassment, while others were created to protect rescuers from their own discouragement when they were unsuccessful in stopping the brutality. It is important to refute all the myths surrounding battered women in order to fully understand why battering happens, how it affects people, and how it can be stopped. The typical stereotype of the battered woman is a woman with several small children, no job skills, is economically independent on her husband, poor, from a minority group, and accustomed to living in violence. On the contrary, most are from middle-class and higher-income homes where the power of their wealth lies in the hands of their husbands. Many of them are large enough to attempt to defend themselves physically. Although some victims are jobless, many more are highly competent workers and successful career women.
