Today is International Women's Day, an appropriate day to take note of and honor the decades of feminist-led research and activism that preceded the ACE study and built the foundation for so much of the trauma and resilience field of work. While the high percentage of people experiencing child sexual abuse may have been unfamiliar to the medical field prior to the ACE study, feminist researchers, anti-violence activists, and community leaders had been studying, writing, and breaking the silence about this since long before.
In the 1970's and 1980's they didn't have the kind of compelling data that we now have showing how domestic violence increases the risk of many adverse childhood experiences, but it was a fact well-known by the grassroots activists opening women's shelters, including Alaska's early shelters in Bethel and in the Yup'ik village of Emmonak.
For those of us working in or engaged in the fields of child trauma prevention and intervention, let us recognize and honor the women who have largely led the way in this field, and their brave voices early in this movement -- as well as our many ancestors who have fought for women's and children's well-being throughout time.
[drawing by Laura Norton-Cruz]
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