Theresa Wyatt

We hope that through such an inclusive definition of violence, women who have not previously defined their experience or the experience of another as violent will be able to do so in a healthy and helpful way.

As part of our mandate was to create a series that is as relevant and useful to as many different women as possible, we spoke with numerous women about our work and asked for their input. Though most of the women we went to for feedback expressed positive feelings about the definition of violence we were using, we had anticipated some negative responses. However we were not prepared for the hostility we encountered from one respondent who said our work would be very upsetting for people who had worked in this field; that our definition of violence would "set back" violence- prevention initiatives by confusing the issue with racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination; and that if someone were to come to her with this definition of violence she would tell them that "real violence is ugly and awful." This incident served to illustrate how strong feelings can come up in dealing with this highly personal and disturbing topic. It is often difficult to accept others' viewpoints when they have hurtful implications for your own experience. We felt that we knew "real violence" and we were disturbed on a personal level by these criticisms. It was sometimes difficult for us to maintain a balance between drawing from our personal experience as a valuable source of knowledge and keeping a professional distance. Not surprisingly, we discovered that we were not the only ones who faced this difficulty.

We received other criticisms which were less hostile yet still surprising. The most common was "Why violence against women? Why not violence against people?" The answer seemed clear to us and yet, difficult to explain to those who did not agree. Our position is that in writing about violence against women, we are not devaluing the experiences of men and boys, we are simply stating a focus. Women have a different experience of violence than men do. In the same way that individual women experience violence differently because of race, class, culture and many other factors, women experience violence differently from men based on the discrepancy between our social positions. In our male-dominated society, women are disadvantaged both economically and socially. In this context, violent acts that men or boys might resist, women and girls are trained to accept. We also felt that because more general material on violence often excludes or marginalizes women's experience, it was appropriate and necessary to have a woman-focused project.

Once we were clear about the definition we would be using, as well as the approach, we moved on to isolating the most crucial information about a topic that has broad implications. In the excerpt from our booklet for learners on the following page, we list some of the effects of violence, and how these can act as barriers to women's education. The series contains many other sections, including practical suggestions for positive change and a theoretical framework within which to examine violence,² but we feel this section is one of the most important for people to be aware of and to integrate into their thinking about learning and education.