Although all books are difficult to write, this has been particularly so. The book deals with violence towards women and children and the methods society uses to minimise, deny and hide this violence. During the time I have taken to write it and then revise it, not a day has passed without the newspapers publishing cases of women or girls murdered by the ex-husband or fiancé they wanted to leave, children violated by men in the family, or other women, in other countries, raped or stoned to death. What is more, no occasion has passed when, speaking of these matters in public, a girl or woman has not come up to me, at the end, to tell me a similar story, in which the violence was followed by abandonment or discredit. The work of writing was so increased by this information and the pleasure, which comes simply from writing, made me almost feel guilty. Only the conviction of doing something useful, almost a commitment made to each one of these women, allowed me to continue and complete it. For these reasons, my thanks go not only to those who have contributed directly to the book, but also to those who have been close to me during these years and, with their commitment, set me an example and spurred me to go on.

First of all thanks go to the persons who believed in this project and made it possible to carry it out in its various versions: Chiara Volpato in Italy, Christine Delphy and Jacqueline Julien in France and Cynthia Cockburn in the UK. Thanks also to Philip de Bary, Commissioning Editor at The Policy Press, for his enthusiasm, expertise and generosity, and to all the staff of The Policy Press, for their passionate attention to detail and their kindness; and to Marianne Hester and Martin Calder for their useful comments.

I would not have been able to write the book if I had not spent a year at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at Stanford University. Many ideas were developed and tested during seminars at the Institute. All the scholars present contributed with ideas, bibliographical references and encouragement. I would like to thank Lynne Henderson in particular for generously providing me with the best in the thinking of feminist jurists, and also Esther Rothblum, Marilyn Yalom and Janet Molzan Turan.