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Women's Aid is a group of Feminist charities across the United Kingdom . There are four main Women's Aid Federations, one for each country. Its aim is to end Domestic Violence against women and children. The charity provides advocacy for abused women and children and aims to ensure their safety by working locally and nationally in the UK. Women's Aid provides a network of over 500 women's refuges and promotes policies and practices to prevent domestic violence against women from occurring. HISTORY Origins The first branch of Women's Aid was formed in Chiswick , London in Autumn 1971 by Erin Pizzey . It was first domestic violence shelter to be opened in Europe. Originally. the organisation was a social meeting place for women who wanted to make a real difference in their communities at a local level and exchange ideas. However, the movement became focused on helping domestic violence victims early on, though very much by accident, when a bruised woman pleased for assistance as no one else would help her. Original Policies and Principles The key policy for Women's Aid was that "no one should ever be turned away". This was known as the "open door" policy, but due to a lack of resources it therefore proved to be a source of many problems as shelters ended up being very overcrowded. RESEARCH As a pioneer in the field Pizzey and Women's Aid obtained many insights into the previously mostly unexplored area of domestic violence. Pizzey highlighted the way in which victims were so badly treated by government, passing from one department to another. After a year of operation, statistics on women staying at Chiswick Women's Aid helped to illustrate the complexities of the problem of domestic violence. ACTIVITIES The charity supported a total of 143,337 women and 114,489 children (with over 40,000 women and children staying in their refuges) in 2001/2. 35,000 other individuals called their 24-hour helpline for information. In its financial year 2004-05, it received £2,052,814 gross income of which it spent £2,254,598. This compares to an income of £560,113 and expenditure of £565,050 in 1997–98.http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/registeredcharities/showcharity.asp?remchar=&chyno=1054154 Taxpayers are the biggest source of income for Women's Aid, their accounts state that at least £780,000 in income came directly from this source in 2005. Women's Aid was set up and is run by women, although it has obtained a dispensation from the Charity Commission not to publish the names of its trustees, and states that: Domestic violence against women is a violation of women and children's human rights, that it is the result of an abuse of power and control, and that it is rooted in the historical status of women in the family and in society. Women and children have a right to live their lives free from all forms of violence and abuse, and society has a duty to recognise and defend this right SERVICES Women's Aid advocate for abused women and children in three main ways. Firstly, they aim to affect policy decisions and laws by working with local and national government. Secondly, they attempt to raise awareness of the severe problem of domestic violence by campaigning and designing websites such as www.hideout.org.uk. Thirdly, they provide services to abused women and children, for example UKROL and the National Domestic Violence Helpline. CONTROVERSIES Whether representative Women's Aid labels itself as "the national domestic violence charity"http://www.womensaid.org.uk/page.asp?section=0001000100040001. They are proud of their feminist roots, because they believe that gender equality has not yet been reached in the area of domestic violence http://www.womensaid.org.uk/page.asp?section=000100010009000300040005. Some believe that they exclude men from their work. Although originally set up to aid women and children, the charity has now diversified, and does offer some services to men, listing them on the "Help For Men" section of their sitehttp://www.womensaid.org.uk/landing_page.asp?section=0001000100080005. There are further organisations of interest to men listed under the "Men" section of "useful links"http://www.womensaid.org.uk/landing_page.asp?section=0001000100080005. Domestic Violence and the Status of Women Rather than viewing domestic violence as something complex that can be perpetrated by anyone, regardless of gender, and for a variety of reasons, Women's Aid prefers to take a different view of the issue. They believe that domestic violence is "fundamentally rooted in the historical status of women in the family and in society".http://www.womensaid.org.uk/landing_page.asp?section=000100010009000300060001 In fact, they go even further, suggesting that "all forms of violence against women results from discrimination against women in society".http://www.womensaid.org.uk/landing_page.asp?section=000100010009000300060001Therefore they believe that even when woman attack each other it is because they are discriminated against. Such a policy completely contradicts the ideals of those who founded the Women's Aid movement who were quick to recognise that domestic violence was not a gender issue {Link without Title} . Recruitment and Membership Policies Women's Aid requires that "no men are employed as project workers in women's services" and that any organisation should "not have men on its management committee or governing body" It also insists that men can only visit refuges in a professional capacity. As a result, men are almost totally excluded from the organisation, restricted to being "supporters". In fact, men are even barred from attending the Women's Aid annual conference each year. [http://www.womensaid.org.uk/landing_page.asp?section=0001000100190007 Misleading statistics Domestic violence against women is a large problem in the UK, yet Women's Aid publishes exaggerated figures and misleading advertisements suggesting that the problem is much bigger than in reality. For example, the Scottish Advertising Standards Authority forced Scotish Women's Aid to withdraw and rewrite one of their campaigns because the statistics were so misleading. http://www.equityfeminism.com/archives/years/2002/000060.html Such actions are of particular concern due to the fact that the UK government uses these inflated figures as a basis for policy making and thus it is likely to result in more funding for female victims to the detriment of others. POLICY STATEMENTS Although a charity, Women's Aid are occasionally called upon to make political statements about gender, and have been quoted as defending UK family law, which is widely accepted, even by judges on the family law circuit, as being grossly prejudiced against fathers and wholly unfair to children in its pursuit of a woman's rights to the exclusion of men's. They also receive a substantial proportion of their funding from the Government. Critics, such as Erin Pizzey, the founder of battered women's refuges in the UK, say such organisations' persistent presentation of women as victims of men is dishonest and deliberately inaccurate, as well as patronising and insulting to both genders. There is also some concern in the extremely broad and ambiguous definitions of domestic violence endorsed by Women's Aid and now by the government. For example, the British Government defines domestic violence to include "posturing" and "financial violence"; just two of many sub-definitions which critics say are patently absurd. Critics accuse Women's Aid of redefining a meaningful word - "violence" - until it has no meaning. Meanwhile in the short term, the politically motivated re-definition of "domestic violence" to include such a wide range of activities encourages women to split from their partners. People such as Erin Pizzey claim that far from defending women's rights against historical patriarchy, Women's Aid further seek to deprive men of their equal rights. Ultimately, they propose, the feminism typified by bodies such as Women's Aid is a politic that has gone full circle from a liberation movement to a tyrannical establishment dogma, used to excuse social, economic and political persecution of men. SUPPORTERS
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