The 'Pitiless Double Abuse' of Battered Mothers

Mothers are expected to do and be all for their children, and those who fall short are criticized. Elizabeth Schneider makes this unassailable assertion in her book "Battered Women and Feminist Lawmaking." In the chapter entitled Motherhood and Battering, Schneider argues that society reserves its greatest opprobrium for mothers who harm their children or who are perceived to stand idly by while other harm their children. As Schneider demonstrates, women who fail to protect their children, even if they attempt to do so, can be legally liable and soundly condemned. This ill-conceived accountability is most likely to occur when the mother is herself a victim of violence. Thus the dangerous confluence of two powerful archetypes -- being a mother and being battered -- inflicts double injury on women who wear both mantles. They not only bear the scars of their abuser, but they also shoulder the blame for the harms others cause to their children.