It Won't Happen to Me:
Substance Abuse-Related Violence Against Women for Anyone Concerned About The Issues

Module 5: Alcohol and Violence - Page 1 of 10

Introduction

Alcohol has been present in our culture from the early colonial days. Even then, people realized that regular alcohol use led, at the very least, to laziness. Alcoholics were considered morally weak, but men were often forgiven for their behavior because they were intoxicated. This tendency to excuse violence because of alcohol continues to this day.

Violence against women has also been happening around the country for many years. From early times, the American colonies accepted that married women had no political or legal rights as individuals (only as wife of ). It was an accepted male right to beat women. Judges expected a husband to use some force against his wife to keep her in line, but if the beatings became excessive, then the man might get into trouble.1

It is only since the women's movement in the 1970s that the United States has begun to examine violence against women and see how it appears in our society. The fields of domestic violence and alcohol abuse are relatively new, and there are many words used to describe substance abuse and violence against women.

Fact Sheets
A condensed version of this module is available as a Fact Sheet in both HTML, PDF Adobe Acrobat PDF Icon and PDF Espaņol Adobe Acrobat PDF Icon formats.

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