HISTORY OF BATTERED WOMEN’S MOVEMENT IN TEXAS
TEXAS. Our state probably conjures up more negative stereotypes in feminist minds than most – from John Wayne to J.R. The popular media portrays Texas as super-macho, gauche or materialistically greedy. A slight change of focus, however, provides a more positive viewpoint. Texas has always been rich in resources, but the past few years have brought Texas to national attention as one of the more “recession-proof” of the Sunbelt states. With our still growing economy, low unemployment and expanding population, Texas can be more optimistic about the immediate future than perhaps other parts of the nation. This is particularly important to the Texas Battered Women’s movement’s need to grow rapidly to meet the needs of our huge and diverse state.
Texas women stand today on the solid bases built by their pioneering grandmothers and mothers. Political activism and volunteer services are both strong traditions of Texas women. Feminists in our state are fortunate to have strong role models in their history from Emily Morgan (The Yellow Rose) to Governor Miriam “Ma” Ferguson to Barbara Jordan to Sarah Weddington.
When in late 1976 a group of women in Austin began to meet together to decide what their community could do for battered women, they exhibited the same determination and sense of power of those more famous Texas women. When the Austin Center for Battered Women opened a scant six months later, it was thought to be the first such shelter in the state – until the Texas Women’s History Project turned up this forgotten episode:
The first Battered Women’s Shelter was established in Belton in 1875.
The Shelter was started by Martha McWhirter as a refuge for abused women: those
beaten by their husbands or those who husbands spent the crop money on Saturday
night binges. They lived a communal life in the shelter, which continued into the 1890’s
and became so prosperous that it donated money to Belton for civic causes. The group
finally sold the property, moved to Washington, D.C., and bought a hotel.
The house in Belton, in which the center was housed still stands, riddled with bullet
holes from the time an irate husband got a vigilante group together and tried to shoot the
residents out of their refuge.
It didn’t work. The women shot back.
Few, if any of those who started out to provide services to women and children, from violent homes, realized the magnitude or complexity of the problem they had undertaken. When Austin’s Center for Battered Women opened its doors in 1977, with space for fourteen women and children, they thought they could now offer emergency shelter to most all the battered women in the county who might request it. Their first month’s experience put that myth to rest forever. A few months later, the Houston Area Women’s Shelter opened for services, spurred on by Austin’s example, and discovered such as a woman and her children taking refuge from their violent home overnight in a dumpster for lack of any alternative.
As shelter groups emerged all over Texas, from tiny Palestine in the Piney Woods to megalopolis of Houston, they came with many ideas and philosophies in common. Most of these principles were reflective of the U.S. shelter movement in general, they are:
1. Services to violent families are best provided by private, non-profit community-based
organizations.
2. Such services can be most effective, efficient and economical if they are delivered primarily by
volunteer– professional and peer groups.
3. Family violence organizations should not duplicate existing services in a locality, but should work
to make current services responsive to the needs of battered women; networking is a key word
in the shelter movement.
4. Public education about the dynamics of family violence is the key to engendering support for
change and prevention of future violence.
These basic commonalties among shelters provided an environment in which the principles of networking, volunteerism and economy of effort began to be translated from the local to the state-wide perspective and led to a formal, statewide shelter network.
The Texas Council on Family Violence (TCFV) was formed in April of 1987. All seven shelters represented at that first meeting had already recognized the importance of a network among the programs. Facing common problems of articulating the extent of family violence in our society, while struggling to develop and finance the programs that are required, the shelter people definitely needed each other.
The Texas Council started by defining a specific agenda and then following through with it. Each quarter, new goals were set and previous ones carefully reviewed for completion– action was stressed. From the outset, the Texas Council operated with a strong desire for open communication and consensus among all the participants at the meeting. A record vote of members of the Board is taken only when policy is being set or financial resources obligated. Otherwise, everyone is asked for his/her opinion. The underlying philosophy of TCFV had been “share what you’ve got and ask for what you need”. By keeping each other abreast of program development issues and asking for special assistance as needed, each participating shelter benefits in tangible ways.
Provided by Texas Council on Family Violence
TEXAS. Our state probably conjures up more negative stereotypes in feminist minds than most – from John Wayne to J.R. The popular media portrays Texas as super-macho, gauche or materialistically greedy. A slight change of focus, however, provides a more positive viewpoint. Texas has always been rich in resources, but the past few years have brought Texas to national attention as one of the more “recession-proof” of the Sunbelt states. With our still growing economy, low unemployment and expanding population, Texas can be more optimistic about the immediate future than perhaps other parts of the nation. This is particularly important to the Texas Battered Women’s movement’s need to grow rapidly to meet the needs of our huge and diverse state.
Texas women stand today on the solid bases built by their pioneering grandmothers and mothers. Political activism and volunteer services are both strong traditions of Texas women. Feminists in our state are fortunate to have strong role models in their history from Emily Morgan (The Yellow Rose) to Governor Miriam “Ma” Ferguson to Barbara Jordan to Sarah Weddington.
When in late 1976 a group of women in Austin began to meet together to decide what their community could do for battered women, they exhibited the same determination and sense of power of those more famous Texas women. When the Austin Center for Battered Women opened a scant six months later, it was thought to be the first such shelter in the state – until the Texas Women’s History Project turned up this forgotten episode:
The first Battered Women’s Shelter was established in Belton in 1875.
The Shelter was started by Martha McWhirter as a refuge for abused women: those
beaten by their husbands or those who husbands spent the crop money on Saturday
night binges. They lived a communal life in the shelter, which continued into the 1890’s
and became so prosperous that it donated money to Belton for civic causes. The group
finally sold the property, moved to Washington, D.C., and bought a hotel.
The house in Belton, in which the center was housed still stands, riddled with bullet
holes from the time an irate husband got a vigilante group together and tried to shoot the
residents out of their refuge.
It didn’t work. The women shot back.
Few, if any of those who started out to provide services to women and children, from violent homes, realized the magnitude or complexity of the problem they had undertaken. When Austin’s Center for Battered Women opened its doors in 1977, with space for fourteen women and children, they thought they could now offer emergency shelter to most all the battered women in the county who might request it. Their first month’s experience put that myth to rest forever. A few months later, the Houston Area Women’s Shelter opened for services, spurred on by Austin’s example, and discovered such as a woman and her children taking refuge from their violent home overnight in a dumpster for lack of any alternative.
As shelter groups emerged all over Texas, from tiny Palestine in the Piney Woods to megalopolis of Houston, they came with many ideas and philosophies in common. Most of these principles were reflective of the U.S. shelter movement in general, they are:
1. Services to violent families are best provided by private, non-profit community-based
organizations.
2. Such services can be most effective, efficient and economical if they are delivered primarily by
volunteer– professional and peer groups.
3. Family violence organizations should not duplicate existing services in a locality, but should work
to make current services responsive to the needs of battered women; networking is a key word
in the shelter movement.
4. Public education about the dynamics of family violence is the key to engendering support for
change and prevention of future violence.
These basic commonalties among shelters provided an environment in which the principles of networking, volunteerism and economy of effort began to be translated from the local to the state-wide perspective and led to a formal, statewide shelter network.
The Texas Council on Family Violence (TCFV) was formed in April of 1987. All seven shelters represented at that first meeting had already recognized the importance of a network among the programs. Facing common problems of articulating the extent of family violence in our society, while struggling to develop and finance the programs that are required, the shelter people definitely needed each other.
The Texas Council started by defining a specific agenda and then following through with it. Each quarter, new goals were set and previous ones carefully reviewed for completion– action was stressed. From the outset, the Texas Council operated with a strong desire for open communication and consensus among all the participants at the meeting. A record vote of members of the Board is taken only when policy is being set or financial resources obligated. Otherwise, everyone is asked for his/her opinion. The underlying philosophy of TCFV had been “share what you’ve got and ask for what you need”. By keeping each other abreast of program development issues and asking for special assistance as needed, each participating shelter benefits in tangible ways.
Provided by Texas Council on Family Violence