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[bookwurm]

A few questions:

What advice would you give to a female academic colleague married to a non-academic who has confided that she has been pinned to the wall and shoved by her husband on several occasions?  (I saw the bruises and asked her; she was obviously embarrassed.)  She is on the cusp of her tenure application and says she is hanging on until she gets tenure, to avoid disruption to her fragile daily routine and to avoid being perceived as somehow who can't made good choices or stick up for herself.  There are two young children -- probably too young to remember consciously what they have seen.  I'm not an expert, but I imagine that domestic violence impacts children of any age.  Would you take any action, give her any counsel, or simply respect her ability to make good choices for herself and her children?  Any sense of what our obligations are as academics?  (I'm obligated to report abuse reported to me by a student, for example.)

Does anyone know of any articles or forum threads (several keyword searches on this site turned up nothing) on the prevalence on domestic abuse in households where one or both partners is an academic?

I remember a series of columns on this site by a widowed professor with four(?) children who mentioned having been abused but I can't find them now.  Can anyone point to them?

Thanks,
Puzzled Colleague and Friend

[fiona]

I don't think her being an academic makes any difference. Abuse is abuse.

You can give her the number of your local battered women's program, and the number of the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

But the average woman leaves half a dozen times before she finally leaves, and here's the reason: when a woman leaves, or is about to, that's when the man is most apt to come after her and kill her. Domestic violence is the main cause of injury and death in young (under 35 or so) women.

If she is not leaving, she may be doing so with the rational perception that she is saving her career and her life and her children's lives.

If she doesn't ask you for advice, there's no advice you can give.

The Fiona