This author uses her own experiences, document research, and interviews to examine how the experience of wife battering became defined as part of the broader issue of family violence. In the first section, the author traces the stages of the generalizing process, identifying the ideological processes and frameworks that demonstrated and organized the process. The process by which the issue of wife abuse was generalized consisted of several stages. The local process was translated to the Federal level, where the nature of the work in the area of wife abuse changed. After this, representatives of women's groups, professionals, academics, and social service agencies worked to develop a concerted position on the issue. These positions were fed into what the author calls the social-problem apparatus through mechanisms, including public hearings held by the Ontario Legislature's Standing Committee on Social Development. Four chapters of this book deal with the work of this committee and its witnesses. The final chapters examine the outcomes in local and general terms and discuss the central organizing dilemma facing the women's movement in Canada.