Johanna Crawford is herself the survivor of an abusive family relationship—at one point, her father even tried to murder her mother. As an adult, she founded a nonprofit organization called Web of Benefit, which gives small grants to female survivors of intimate terrorism to help them rebuild their lives by taking practical steps, such as furthering their education, getting a green card, starting a business, etc. In her book IT TAKES A WOMAN TO EMPOWER WOMEN, she offers some practical, emotional, and spiritual guidance for women who have survived abusive situations and relationships. While the guide is short and simple in its focus, it offers references to websites, suggested reading materials, and resources to help women get more detailed, in-depth information. It is both clearly and tidily organized, providing sections that help identify what abuse consists of, how abusers behave, how to make a plan to get away, and how to reclaim economic independence after leaving an abusive relationship—as well as how to break the cycle of abuse with future generations. It also, however, goes further than that in encouraging female survivors to think about what they really dream of doing with their lives, create a concrete proposal to achieve those dreams, and seek out help and support in doing so.
Affirmations, suggestions for self-care, and journaling suggestions end each chapter, offering a spiritual and emotional side to healing and moving on. Individual women’s stories offer a personal perspective and a look at the variety of dreams and ambitions that individual women have achieved (or are in the process of achieving). The book is solidly female-centric and feminist, which is a positive thing in that it encourages mutual support among women and a deeper look at the patriarchal foundations that often sustain and promote male-on-female intimate terrorism. It does sometimes go a bit too far, though, in treating the problem of all intimate terrorism as not just mostly but almost exclusively a thing inflicted on women by men.
She does acknowledge that men can be abused, stating for example that “one in three women and one in four men are victims of some form of physical violence by an intimate partner,” but generally treats the problem of abuse as a problem of male perpetrators and female victims without acknowledging that those statistics may be skewed by the social stigma and mockery inflicted on men who admit to being abused—particularly physically abused—by male or female partners (the latter ironically stemming from the sexist view that “normal” men are always able to dominate female partners). However, for female survivors, this is likely to be at least a useful, positive, and supportive starting point.
Johanna Crawford’s IT TAKES A WOMAN TO EMPOWER WOMEN lives up to its titular promise, offering practical and emotional empowerment for women survivors of domestic abuse from a female-centered point of view. It is likely to be a useful starting point for women seeking to escape abusive situations.
~Catherine Langrehr for indieReader