Remembering Scottish Women’s Aid in the 1970s and 1980s

As part of my research into marriage and marriage breakdown in late twentieth-century Scotland, I have been lucky enough to be able to examine a series of twelve oral history interviews that were conducted as part of the Scottish Women’s Aid 30^th Anniversary Oral History and Archive Project. The women interviewed were closely involved with Women’s Aid in its early years, during the 1970s and early 1980s, and their accounts reveal not only contemporary perceptions of domestic violence but also attitudes towards marriage, family and the position of women in late twentieth-century Scotland.

In Britain, the efforts of prominent and media-aware campaigners, including Erin Pizzey who established what is commonly believed to have been the very first Women’s Aid refuge in Chiswick, London, contributed to a heightened sense of urgency regarding ‘battered women’. In Scotland, the Women’s Liberation movement acted as a driving force in the initiation of contemporary campaigns against domestic violence and the provision of practical help for women who had experienced it. Many of the women who played key roles in the establishment of Women’s Aid groups across Scotland, particularly those formed in its cities, were also involved in the early 1970s feminist movement. Their commitment to feminist politics underpinned their dedication to raising awareness of domestic violence and also shaped the support which they initially provided to women on a wholly voluntary basis.

One former worker explained that, to her, working for Women’s Aid ‘seemed like the practical edge of feminism’. However, it is important to note too that women from a range of backgrounds became involved, including women who had previously endured domestic violence themselves and those who became involved through Church-based activities, and that the various Women’s Aid groups across Scotland could vary considerably in terms of approach, often in response to the local context.

The emergence of individual Women’s Aid groups, including those in Dundee, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Falkirk, was followed by the founding of Scottish Women’s Aid in 1976. This national network supported existing Women’s Aid groups and fostered the development of new ones, in addition to co-ordinating larger-scale campaigns against domestic violence. Contemporary sociologists Drs Russell and Rebecca Dobash describe an ‘explosion of activity’ with regard to this issue, which would infiltrate both mainstream discussion and the wider public consciousness in Scotland.

Studying the oral history transcripts, I was particularly struck by the account of Anne, who eventually sought refuge in 1979, having been abused by her husband to the point where she was, in her own words, ‘really, really very, very ill, physically and emotionally and everywhere else’. I feel that her testimony illustrates very powerfully the role played by Women’s Aid in providing support for women in the 1970s. It suggests also the extent to which the wider collective discourse on domestic violence had previously inhibited women like Anne from speaking out. She explains:

And it was great, it was great to have that reinforcement [in the refuge] because, where I’d came from, it was like, well, that’s your life and you get on with it. And ‘what are you complaining aboot, he’s working’, ‘at least he works’, ‘at least he does this’ and ‘at least he does that’ and, you know, you were hanging on to that, thinking ‘Well, aye, you’re right, you know, at least I’m no’ as bad off as some people’ …

The opportunity for women to discuss their experiences of domestic abuse openly and at length, very often for the first time, is a theme that permeates the interview transcripts. The extent to which many women ‘just wanted to talk’ about their experience of domestic violence had not been anticipated by the early Women’s Aid groups. That women were now being given the opportunity to do so marked a turning point for many.

Through her testimony, it becomes evident that it was within the ‘safe’, supportive space constituted by the refuge that Anne was finally able to discuss the violence she had endured and began to re-build a sense of her own identity. She describes the exact moment at which she realised she would never return to her violent husband, during a conversation with one of the Women’s Aid workers about an issue concerning her children. She recalls:

… I think somebody actually saying it to my face or the way she said it, I don’t know, but I suddenly realised, and she says to me ‘but you’ve got rights as well’ and it was like a door opening and I looked at her and I said to her, ‘Aye, I know I have’ but then I looked again and I went, actually, ‘She’s right, I have’… And it was just a simple statement she said but it always sticks in my mind, it was just like a door opening and – And, although I decided to go back to my house, because the house was in my name even then, I knew I would never ever ever go back to that abuse, I knew I would never go back to taking him back.

Anne’s testimony regarding her experience of refuge in the late 1970s presents an invaluable and compelling insight into what the pioneering work of Women’s Aid meant for many women on a personal level. She subsequently went on to work for the organisation herself and doubtless helped to change the lives of many other women. I found her testimony truly inspiring.

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