Leslie Morgan Steiner Quotes

There's no battered woman alive who didn't know in advance that the man was bad.

The biggest challenge is to convince a woman that it's not her fault. My daughter is 25; my stepdaughter is 22. As a mother, I want them to know that if a boyfriend is abusive, you cannot ignore it ?- 'Oh, he's been drinking,' or 'He had a bad day.' There is no excuse for a man hitting a woman. Ever.

An abusive relationship is worse than being in prison. I mean literally, not figuratively.

I feel very sorry for people who are trapped in an abusive relationship and keep making excuses for their abuser.

When a man has been consistently battering his wife, he shouldn't expect a bouquet of roses from her the morning after he promises to stop.

Men who have been raised violently have every reason to believe it is appropriate for them to control others through violence; they feel no compunction over being violent to women, children, and one another.

There are endless new variations on how to hurt a woman physically, emotionally, financially, and socially.

My husband worked on Wall Street and was an Ivy League graduate as well. In our world, we were the last couple you'd imagine enmeshed in domestic violence.

When I was married to an abuser, he'd tell me he wouldn't have to get so angry if only I'd be less demanding, more supportive, more understanding. I hid the truth from everyone, especially myself.

Domestic abuse happens only in intimate, interdependent, long-term relationships - in other words, in families - the last place we would want or expect to find violence.

I read 'Men Who Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them,' and I found frightening pieces that related to... my own life.

When working at Women's Aid, I met countless women whose families had not believed them when they spoke of their abuse at the hands of another loved one.

I know just about everything that really goes on with domestic violence.

Physically abusive and verbally abuse marriages are very, very difficult situations. I fully understand people in those kinds of marriages who think there is no hope. I also know that the advice that is given by most people is simply... get out of there as fast as you can.

He always apologized, and sometimes he would even cry because of the bruises he'd made on her arms or legs or her back. He would say that he hated what he'd done, but in the next breath tell her she'd deserved it. That if she'd been more careful, it wouldn't have happened. That if she'd been paying attention or hadn't been so stupid, he wouldn't have lost his temper.

Few people who are hit once by someone they love respond in the way they might to a singular physical assault by a stranger.

There is female-on-male spouse abuse. There are women who hit their husbands. But there must have been something that caused that because otherwise it wouldn't have happened.

[Domestic violence is] a carefully laid physical, financial and psychological trap.

Abusive relationships go on and on. You're in it for so long that it can almost be impossible to see it for what it is. That just becomes your life. We get used to and adapt.

Domestic violence is much more prevalent than people realize.

I personally believe that violence against women in our society is not going anywhere.

When we advocate for violence against women to be eliminated on campuses, we say, 'Well, actually, it's not just on campuses we have to worry about.' We might have to worry about high schools. We might have to worry about police precincts and cars. We might have to worry about public housing.

I know what it feels like to represent clients who can't get restraining orders on abusive partners.

Violence against women is not inevitable.

For generations America and its institutions have refused to acknowledge the true severity of the harm that domestic violence imposes on our society.