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There was exactly one letter to the editor of the National Post on the matter — from a woman — and it was crisply unsympathetic. The London, Ontario reader scolded: “Do men think government or some other benefactor established women’s shelters? In the 1970s, when the extent of family violence came to the attention of feminists, they organized committees in many communities, fundraised and opened shelters.”

It is true that women have been pro-active and highly successful in organizing themselves and raising consciousness about women’s suffering and formerly diminished domestic rights. It is also true that men do not have the same instinct for collective action in their own interests. They are far more likely than women to lick their wounds in silence and in solitude. Men who suffer abuse from women, in particular, are — out of gallantry or embarrassment — ashamed to publicly admit they have been physically victimized by a woman.

Which doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. It happens with virtually the same frequency and almost always the same level of violence that women experience from men. We have been down this road many times before, but the myth persists that only women can be victims of domestic violence, and that when they do become violent, it is only in self-defence or from repeated provocation.

But to return to the letter-writer’s question, and her allusion to the feminists in the 1970s who organized women’s shelters. I wonder if she is familiar with the name of the woman who inspired that Canadian shelter system for “battered wives,” as they were then called.