Erin Pizzey, English activist and author, founded Refuge
Erin Patria Margaret Pizzey (; born 19 February 1939) is an English ex-feminist and men's rights advocate, domestic abuse advocate, and novelist. She is known for having started the first and currently the largest domestic violence shelter in the modern world, Refuge, then known as Chiswick Women's Aid, in 1971.Pizzey has been the subject of death threats and boycotts because her experience and research into the issue led her to conclude that most domestic violence is reciprocal, and that women are equally as capable of violence as men. Pizzey has said that the threats were from militant feminists. She has also said that she is banned from the refuge she started.Haven House in California, founded in 1964, is often cited as the first women's refuge (called women's shelters in Canada and the U.S.) in the modern world, but at the time of their founding, they only worked to help the mentally ill transition from committed life in a hospital to life in the outside world. By contrast, the refuge started by Erin Pizzey was focused on removing victims of domestic abuse from their abusers, in an attempt to break the cycle.