Beyond Closed Doors
October 26, 2026
In 1980, an Ohio woman named Annie Warmke finally escaped her abusive husband after more than 20 attempts to leave. For the first time, she reached a shelter where he could not find her. There she found the groundbreaking book Battered Wives by Del Martin. In its stories of other women, she recognized herself and learned that she was not alone. She would become an ardent advocate for women who have experienced domestic violence.
The abuse that Annie left behind is an age-old story and a violation of human rights. Intimate partner violence can be emotional, financial, sexual, psychological, or physical, and it grows from the belief that one partner has the right to control the other. It harms people of every gender, though women are more likely to experience its most severe forms and report lasting effects. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms that everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person. For Annie, as for millions of others, that right was most at risk inside her own home.
For centuries, domestic violence was considered a private, family matter. In many places, it still is. In 1993, the United Nations General Assembly rejected that idea. It declared that violence against women violates their human rights, whether it happens in public or behind closed doors.
In the United States, change has been slow. When Annie fled, many of the protections survivors rely on today did not exist or were brand new. The first state laws protecting survivors appeared in the mid-1970s, and federal funding for shelters and services followed in the 1980s and 1990s. When the National Domestic Violence Hotline answered its first call in 1996, Annie had been free for 16 years.
Laws alone have not ended this violence. Worldwide, one in three women has experienced physical or sexual violence at least once in their lives, and the person who harms them is most often a current or former partner. This violence spans income and education levels, geography, religion, and race. When an injustice is this universal and entrenched, we must ask ourselves why.
The Spiral of Injustice reminds us that injustice begins with language. When language marginalizes, objectifies, and dehumanizes women, sexism and, eventually, violence become easier to justify. Research links harmful attitudes toward women to violence against them in intimate relationships. Language can be the hardest part of the Spiral to interrupt because it is so common and happens close to us. We hear “Can’t you take a joke?” at home, at work, in the media, in group chats.
Because these attitudes are handed down from one generation to the next, it takes all of us to make homes safe. We can notice the words, jokes, and insults that we use or repeat. We can reach out to a friend who might be in an abusive relationship. We can seek help if we are in one ourselves. We can talk with young people about the harmful messages they absorb in person and online. We can hold perpetrators accountable. We can create spaces where people can learn, talk honestly, and recognize harm. We can hear and believe survivors.
The woman who once needed a place her abuser could not find has spent the decades since making that place for others. Her life has been rooted in advocacy and community building. Change is possible. The road to just and joyful communities follows the one Annie traveled: away from injustice, into the hope of community, and toward the day when the right to security of person is a lived reality in every home.
If you are experiencing domestic violence or someone you know is, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233.