Susan Schechter (1 May 1946 – 3 February 2004) was an American feminist and activist against domestic violence. She wrote three books on the subject and helped found one of the first

women's shelter A women's shelter, also known as a women's refuge and battered women's shelter, is a place of temporary protection and support for women escaping domestic violence and intimate partner violence of all forms. The term is also frequently used t ...

Education and career

Schechter was originally from

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, Missouri, where she earned a bachelor's degree in comparative literature from

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University i ...

in 1975. She earned a master's degree in social work from the

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the University of Illinois s ...

, and became director of women's services at a

YWCA The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swi ...

in Chicago, through which she began her work with domestic violence, also helping to found a women's shelter in Chicago in the late 1970s. She moved to New York City in 1978, working briefly for the

Henry Street Settlement The Henry Street Settlement is a not-for-profit social service agency in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City that provides social services, arts programs and health care services to New Yorkers of all ages. It was founde ...

before moving to the Park Slope Safe Homes Project in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

and then, in 1982, to the Women's Education Institute in New York. After moving to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

in 1986, she worked at

Boston Children's Hospital Boston Children's Hospital formerly known as Children's Hospital Boston until 2012 is a nationally ranked, freestanding acute care children's hospital located in Boston, Massachusetts, adjacent both to its teaching affiliate, Harvard Medical Scho ...

, as a program coordinator and consultant in the Advocacy for Women and Kids in Emergencies program, the first domestic violence program to be established in an American children's hospital. In 1991 she became a clinical professor in the School of Social Work at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 coll ...

, where her husband Allen Steinberg was also a professor of history. She died of

endometrial cancer Endometrial cancer is a cancer that arises from the endometrium (the lining of the uterus or womb). It is the result of the abnormal growth of cells that have the ability to invade or spread to other parts of the body. The first sign is most ...

on 3 February 2004.

Recognition

In 2002, the University of Iowa's Celebration of Excellence Among Women gave her their Distinguished Achievement Award. Schechter was named to the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame in 2005. A special issue of the journal ''Juvenile and Family Court Journal'', dedicated to her memory, was published in 2019. Her papers are held in the

Schlesinger Library The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America is a research library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University. According to Nancy F. Cott, the Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director ...

of the

Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University—also known as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute—is a part of Harvard University that fosters interdisciplinary research across the humanities, sciences, social sciences, arts, a ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

Books

Schechter was the author or coauthor of: *''Women and Male Violence: The Visions and Struggles of the Battered Women's Movement'' (1982) *''When Love Goes Wrong: Strategies for Women with Controlling Partners'' (with Ann Jones, 1992) *''Effective Intervention in Domestic Violence & Child Maltreatment Cases: Guidelines for Policy and Practice'' (National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, 1999)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schechter, Susan 1946 births 2004 deaths People from St. Louis American social workers American feminist writers Domestic violence academics Washington University in St. Louis alumni University of Illinois Chicago alumni University of Iowa faculty