Betsy Warrior

Betsy Warrior is a Boston-area feminist, author, and graphic artist. She is an advocate for women in abusive relationships, and was a founding member of the Boston-area women's liberation group Cell 16.

Personal life

Warrior was born in 1940.

Warrior married at the age of 17, and suffered domestic abuse at the hands of her husband. She recalls beatings that left her "face bleeding and bruised", and cites the intervention of her family in helping her to finally leave her husband. Six years after her divorce, she adopted the name "Betsy Warrior" in honor of Native American activist Clyde Warrior, in admiration of his fight for Native American rights. Warrior is a descendant of the Mi'kmaq tribe of Canada.

Warrior earned her associate degree from Bunker Hill Community College in 2007.

Activism

In 1968, along with Roxanne Dunbar and Dana Densmore, Warrior helped found Cell 16, a "women's liberation group" that advocated for women's rights, pay equality, reproductive rights, and self-defense. Cell 16 was considered the face of the women's liberation movement in Boston at the time.

While with Cell 16, Warrior created a poster that read: "Disarm rapists/Smash sexism", depicting a woman fighting off a would-be rapist. The poster was popular within the anti-rape movement.

In 1974, Warrior published The Houseworker's Handbook along with Lisa Leghorn, a fellow activist Warrior met at the Cambridge Women's Center. Warrior equated domestic violence to "how women were devalued in society", and how a woman might stay in an abusive relationship because they lack the means or ability to escape. While at the Cambridge Women's Center, Warrior helped to open the first battered women's shelter on the east coast. Warrior made another poster that read “Strike! While the Iron Is Hot!” which became popular in Italy with advocates of the Wages for Housework movement. The publication was cited for spreading awareness on the issue of domestic abuse and Warrior received numerous offers of help from other women who read the book. The last edition was published in 1989.

Warrior has developed a series of posters on international women's rights which honor women activists from around the world.

Awards and recognitions

Warrior was awarded the first Jane Doe Unsung Hero award in 1993. She has been recognized by Women's eNews and Boston's Woman Magazine.

Published works

Houseworker's Handbook (written with Lisa Leghorn): Woman's Center (1975). Working on Wife Abuse (1977). Battered Women's Directory (1982). Housework: Slavery Or a Labor of Love? (1986).