Louise Armstrong Politics of Child Welfare

“Historically, it has been women who first raised the issues of intimate violence committed by men against wives and children and petitioned for resources that would enable women to maintain themselves after fleeing and for assistance in gaining protection for themselves and their children. Where the state has responded, however, with financial assistance or child welfare intervention, the response has never been informed by feminism.”

“In turning to the state, women have found themselves turning to institutionalized as opposed to private patriarchy.”

From 1996:

"Louise has spoken widely at colleges, conferences and conventions. Kiss Daddy Goodnight, published in 1978, broke the taboo on talking about incest. Rocking the Cradle of Sexual Politics: What Happened When Women Said Incest, published in 1994, was described as ‘An important, incendiary, unapologetic history written in hope of rekindling the possibility of radical change — nothing less than a redistribution of gender power’. Her most recent publication is Of ‘Sluts’ and ‘Bastards’: A Feminist Decodes the Child Welfare Debate (1995)."

Louise died aged 71 on August 10, 2008. Read this obituary published in the Guardian and written by Julie Bindel: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/sep/24/childprotection