Women were hampered in their attempts to get legal remedies for family violence. Winning the vote in 1893 gave them a say at the polling booth, but for years they remained unrepresented in the institutions where laws were made or administered. There was no woman member of Parliament until 1933, and for several more decades there were very few. Women could not sit on juries until 1942, and not on an equal basis with men until 1963. There were no women police until 1941, and few women lawyers until the 1980s.
Support for victims
After 1893, organisations such as the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the National Council of Women called for political and legal action on a range of women’s issues, including family violence. This was the central concern of the Society for the Protection of Women and Children (SPWC), formed in Auckland in 1893, with branches set up later in Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. The SPWC assisted battered women and took prosecutions, but because of its few branches and scant funding it could give only limited help.
‘The sanctity of marriage’
For much of the 20th century, marriage was widely seen as the ultimate goal for women, whose educational and work opportunities were therefore restricted. Women’s lower status in society and within marriage continued. Family violence, which exploited and reinforced this power imbalance, remained common. Between 1956 and 1969, for example, 30% of all common assaults recorded occurred within families.
This violence was often trivialised or ignored. The main goal of the SPWC (later called the Home and Family Society) was to preserve the traditional family unit. It was interested only in cases of ‘excessive’ violence, and believed that some women had provoked their abuse. Police took a similar approach, and were reluctant to arrest violent men when called to ‘domestic disputes’. Many people regarded marriage as a special relationship in which other people should not interfere.
Women were often reluctant to report violence. They feared complaints not being taken seriously, renewed violence as a response, and turning in someone they still loved.
Refuges
When the women’s liberation movement began in New Zealand in the 1970s, feminists realised that domestic and sexual violence were major problems that had been hushed up. They believed that any violence – not just ‘excessive’ violence – towards women was unacceptable, and set up rape crisis centres and refuges.
Women’s refuges
The first women’s refuges opened in Christchurch (1974), Auckland (1975) and Dunedin (1976) to provide accommodation for women fleeing violent relationships. They were followed by others around the country, and in 1981 they joined together as the National Collective of Independent Women’s Refuges(NCIWR). In the 1980s refuges run by and for Māori women opened. Later refuges for Pacific women and women of other ethnic groups were started. A 1983 survey of refuges gave a more accurate idea of the level of domestic violence than prosecution statistics could, and led to some government funding for the NCIWR.
Rape in marriage
During the first decades of the 20th century several court cases questioned a married woman’s right to refuse sexual intercourse with her husband. Judges ruled differently in each case, but some supported the right of women to refuse. In the late 1930s, for instance, Justice Henry Ostler stated that ‘a woman on marriage does not sell her body’.1 However, rape within marriage was not made a criminal offence until 1985.
As well as offering a safe haven, refuges provided telephone crisis lines and counselling programmes for women and children. They helped women make informed decisions about the future by advising them on taking legal action and obtaining benefits and housing. They also ran community education programmes on domestic violence.
Rape Crisis
The first rape crisis telephone helpline was started by feminists in 1973, and the first rape crisis centre was set up in Auckland in 1978. More groups were set up and two collectives were established: Te Kakano o te Whanau (1985) for Māori women and the National Collective of Rape Crisis and Related Groups (1986). Like the refuges, Rape Crisis provided counselling, legal advice and support, and public education.
Stopping violence
In the 1980s, men started running non-violence programmes for other men. Organisations working to end domestic violence joined together as Te Kupenga Whakaoti Mahi Putunga/National Network of Stopping Violence Services. The network promoted social change to end men’s violence towards women and children.
Legal aid and the DPB
Law changes assisted women trying to escape violent home situations. In 1969, legal aid became available for those who could not afford a lawyer. The introduction of the domestic purposes benefit (DPB) for sole parents in 1973 made it easier for women with dependent children to leave abusive relationships.