Based primarily on interviews with key persons and the author's personal experience, the building of the battered women's movement is chronicled. This includes an analysis of the socially-induced silence regarding battered women before the battered women's movement emerged, the personal and political roots of the movement, its emergence primarily through shelters for battered women, and its growing pains. Other aspects of the movement examined are its organization through State and local coalitions, national and international efforts, related aspects of criminal justice system reform, and the contradictory effects of government involvement in the movement. The book then explores the social conditions that perpetuate battering and targets ways in which the movement should organize to confront such violence. The final chapters explore the current strategy dilemmas and problems that the feminist part of the movement faces. This includes a critical look at issues that internally divide the movement, such as racism and homophobia. The book argues that shelters must view themselves both as services and as movement organizations, so the spirit of progressive social change can be maintained. A countrevailing political ideology is offered to sustain the radical spirit and experimentation of the movement. Chapter notes, 135-item bibliography, resource organizations, interview sources, subject index.