Finally, women are perpetrators as well as victims of spousal assault. Feminists and battered women's advocates decry claims of female violence as misogynist propaganda based on a handful of discredited studies. In fact, there are close to a hundred such studies, many done by feminists, such as University of Pittsburgh psychologist Irene Frieze, who wouldn't release her findings on dating violence for years because they indicated that women were the aggressors more often. Because of differences in size and strength, male violence poses a greater risk. But female violence is far from harmless.
Studies indicate that one in four injuries are suffered by men.
Women may use weapons, from knives to the stereotypical frying pan, to neutralize their disadvantage. The psychological effects of abuse are almost as bad for men as for women. Cultural blinders often keep us from seeing female violence in the context of domestic violence. The feminist response to this issue is rife with doublethink. People who assert that women are as aggressive as men when it comes to military service or competition in business insist that on the home front, violent women act only in self-defense.