That is partially true, but it is too linear an explanation. Human beings are much more complicated than that. After a few years, though, people who worked with the victims of violence began to turn their attention to men, who would often just move on to another relationship in which they would batter again. And they started to see different women coming in who had been abused by the same man, recalls Richard M. Tolman, professor of social work at the University of Michigan , who began working in 1980 with men who batter in Anchorage, Alaska. The first programs for men were built around what is called the pro-feminist model.
Counselors view violence as an extension of patriarchy, as a way of men maintaining power.
Men enrolled in these programs go through resocialization. They examine how men and women are socialized by looking at magazine advertisements, films and other cultural forces that shape how men's and women's roles are defined. This is the approach taken, for instance, by Men Stopping Violence , a program begun in Atlanta in 1982. Men Stopping Violence places emphasis on social change rather than on simply treating individual men. We want to be a visible presence in the community to indicate to the community that violence against women is a problem and that it exists.