When Self-Defense Was a Man's WorldHow the law learned to understand a woman's fear.

From the show

Hidden Architecture of Patriarchy

The legal standard for self-defense was built around a single moment of violence, not years of abuse. To make a woman's experience legible in court, the system had to invent a psychological condition: the 'battered woman syndrome.' This is the story of how Dr. Lenore Walker's pioneering work in the 1970s and 80s forced the law to recognize the cumulative terror of domestic violence, creating a new framework for justice that looked beyond a single instant.