Looking back at her 42 years helping domestic abuse survivors, the now-retired former CEO of Refuge, Sandra Horley says: \u201cDomestic abuse has never been higher on the political or public agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n
She began working in women\u2019s refuges in the English Midlands in 1978. \u201cBack then, it was generally accepted by society that a man had a right to hit his partner and a woman just had to put up with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbused women, or \u2018battered wives\u2019 as they were labelled then, had no money, nowhere to go, and no one to turn to for support. Refuge, and others, led the march \u2013 step-by-step, towards change,\u201d she said in an opinion piece on Refuge\u2019s website.
\n\u201cAt the start of my journey I was a lone voice, and the police simply did not want to know about domestic violence. They dismissed it as a \u2018domestic\u2019, a private matter, to be kept behind closed doors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no government funding and no adequate homelessness legislation to give survivors a right to housing. Back then, women leaving violent men were told they had made themselves \u2018intentionally homeless\u2019 and therefore not entitled to accommodation or they had to provide proof of violence before they could access emergency accommodation.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, domestic abuse is rightly seen as a crime, and it has been pushed up the political agenda. The Domestic Abuse Bill is soon to return to the House of Lords, following its passage through the Commons \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cAs policies and legislation have changed, Refuge\u2019s message has remained clear. Domestic abuse is a crime, women and children have a right to live safely and without fear.\u201d<\/p>\n