It is over 40 years since the publication in paperback of the seminal, feminist text Violence against Wives: A Case against the Patriarchy (Dobash and Dobash, 1979). Alongside other important feminist-inspired texts produced in the 1970s, Violence against Wives contributed to a critical, feminist praxis through its analysis of power, men’s violence, gender relations and the state. The book provided a feminist-based, analytical framework for addressing three key areas: the historical context of male dominance and the prevailing cultural norms which uphold and maintain the dominant social order; the realities of interpersonal violence and the systematic loss of power experienced by women at an institutional level, in this instance, the institution of marriage; and the incompetent response of state support systems for women in need which were underpinned by victim-blaming narratives. The text concluded by warning that unless the legal, political, economic and family structures which pervade every aspect of cultural life were challenged and disassembled, the systemic subordination of women and the endemic nature of violent practices against them would continue.

In 2022, all of these arguments remain depressingly familiar. While there are many causes for celebration with regard to feminist gains made over the last 40 years, these are neither secure nor protected. Rampant, toxic masculinity and violent, structural power relations such as ‘race’, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, faith, socio-economic status and disability, bind together enduring and remorseless acts of violence against women and children, perpetrated at individual, institutional and state levels. Against a backdrop of a global health pandemic, an urgent movement for racial justice, Brexit, the decimation of the public sector through the onslaught of austerity, and the continued role of state institutions in policing and punishing vulnerable women, and in reinforcing patriarchal social relations, the future looks bleak.

However, we appear to be at a critical juncture in relation to the ongoing disruption of accepted academic narrative, popular common sense and political complacency around particular gendered social issues. In breaking the silence around sexual harassment and abuse, various disclosures and different campaigns have sought to frame men’s violence as an issue that is pervasive, overlooked and ignored.