Erin Pizzey

Erin Patria Margaret Pizzey (née Carney, born 19 February, 1939 in China, daughter of a diplomat) is a British family care activist and a best-selling novelist. She became internationally famous for having started one of the first [Haven House in California was founded in 1964, seven years earlier than Pizzey's shelter (see [http://www.havenhousela.com/aboutus/index.htm About Haven House] ).] Women's Refuges (called women's shelters in the U.S.) in the modern world in 1971.

Overview

She began in the Goldhawk Road, Chiswick, West London where abused women were offered tea, sympathy and a place to stay for them and their children. Erin Pizzey said that militant feminists - with the collusion of Labour's leading women - hijacked her cause and used it to try to demonise all men, not only in Britain, but internationally [ [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=430702&in_page_id=1&in_page_id=1&expand=true How feminists tried to destroy the family | the Daily Mail ] ] . After the hijacking the demand for a service for women survivors of domestic violence grew and soon public funding became available. Today the movement has been rebranded as Women's Aid and garners millions of pounds a year from a variety of sources although primarily from the state.

According to many webpages, Pizzey has said, or has been quoted as saying [ [http://www.speakeasy.org/~dbrick/Melrose/94-05-11melrose.html One website] bearing little connection to her biography claims the source is the 24 August 1988 issue of London "Daily Mail".] : "Men are gentle, honest and straightforward. Women are convoluted, deceptive and dangerous." Pizzey said that most domestic violence is reciprocal, that means that both partners are equally violent towards each other, she reached this conclusion when she asked the women in her refuge about their violence and she concluded that most of the women were equally violent or more violent as their husbands. She has lamented that the movement she started had moved from the personal to the political, and in turn she has been critiqued by feminists. This view has been supported by a variety of subsequent studies, including that by, Malcolm J. George of the Department of Physiology, Queen Mary and Westfield College, London, United Kingdom - " [http://www.dewar4research.org/DOCS/dky.pdf Riding the Donkey Backwards: Men as the Unacceptable Victims of Marital Violence] ".

In her book "Prone to Violence" (full text available [http://www.bennett.com/ptv/ online] ) she propounded the theory that many of the women who took refuge had a personality such that they sought abusive relationships. The book contains numerous stories of disturbed families alongside a discussion of the reasons why the modern state care-taking agencies are largely ineffective (one extreme situation was when a woman in the refuge bit off a top of another woman's finger).

Some internet sources make the claim that "Prone to Violence" was suppressed by feminists (a search of all libraries in the world that could be accessed from the US Library of Congress through the Inter-Library Network in 1996 revealed a total of only thirteen listings worldwide), however there is no direct evidence to support the assertion.

Pizzey says it was after death threats against her, her children, her grandchildren, and the killing of her dog, all of which she states were perpetrated by feminist activists [ [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,197550,00.html Fox news article on Erin Pizzey] ] , [ [http://www.fathersforlife.org/pizzey/failfamt.htm Erin Pizzey's March 20, 1999 article published in The Scotsman] ] that she left England for North America. She returned to London in the 1990s where her insights were sought by politicians and family pressure groups.

Books

Non fiction

*"Scream Quietly or the Neighbours Will Hear"
*"Infernal Child" (an early memoir)
*"Sluts' Cookbook"
*"Erin Pizzey Collects"
*"Prone to violence" ISBN 0-600-20551-7 Out of Print, [http://www.bennett.com/ptv/ full text available online] Full-text available [http://www.bennett.com/ptv/ online]
*"Wild Child"
*"The Emotional Terrorist and The Violence-prone" ISBN 0-88970-103-2 [http://www.dvmen.org/dv-119.htm (excerpt)]

Fiction

*"The Watershed"
*"In the Shadow of the Castle"
*"The Pleasure Palace (in manuscript)"
*"First Lady"
*"Counsul General’s Daughter"
*"The Snow Leopard of Shanghai"
*"Other Lovers"
*"Swimming with Dolphins"
*"For the Love of a Stranger"
*"Kisses"
*"The Wicked World of Women"
*"The Fame Game (work in progress)"
*"The Lifestyle of an International Best selling Author"

Awards

*International Order of Volunteers For Peace, Diploma Of Honour (Italy) 1981.
*Nancy Astor Award for Journalism 1983.
*World Congress of Victimology (San Francisco) 1897 - Distinguished Leadership Award.
*St. Valentino Palm d’Oro International Award for Literature, February 14th, 1994, Italy.

External links

* [http://www.sossandra.org/author/erin Erin Pizzey's Blog]
* [http://www.sossandra.org/2007/04/13/this-way-to-the-revolution This Way To The Revolution, by Erin Pizzey]
* [http://www.fathersforlife.org/pizzey/pizzey.htm Erin Pizzey -- Founder of Modern Women's Shelter Movement]
* [http://www.fathersforlife.org/pizzey/destrctn.htm The Planned Destruction of The Family, by Erin Pizzey]
* [http://briandeer.com/social/erin-pizzey.htm Erin Pizzey, crusader for battered women, by Brian Deer]
* [http://www.menweb.org/pizzey.htm MenWeb - Men's Issues. Working with Violent Women] by Erin Pizzey
* [http://www.bennett.com/ptv/index.shtml Prone to Violence] by Erin Pizzey
* [http://www.fathersforlife.org/pizzey/fragile.htm Why Did My Grandson Die?] Original title "Fragile" by Erin Pizzey
* [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=430702&in_page_id=1770 How feminists tried to destroy the family] , by Erin Pizzey

Footnotes