Early activism In 1959, Pizzey attended her first meeting at the UK's
Liberation Movement (WLM) at the
Chiswick house of a local organiser, Artemis At Artemis' urging, Pizzey agreed to convene a "consciousness-raising group" at her home in
Goldhawk Road. Pizzey's work was widely praised at the time. In 1975, MP
Jack Ashley stated in the
House of Commons that "The work of Mrs. Pizzey was pioneering work of the first order. It was she who first identified the problem, who first recognised the seriousness of the situation and who first did something practical by establishing the Chiswick aid centre. As a result of that magnificent pioneering work, the whole nation has now come to appreciate the significance of the problem". While being prosecuted by local authorities and appealing matters to the
House of Lords, she was recognised for her work. Although Refuge traces its existence back to Chiswick Women's Aid, Pizzey's name could not be found anywhere on the Refuge website for many decades.
Reciprocity of domestic violence Soon after establishing her first refuge, Pizzey asserted that much of the domestic violence was reciprocal. (co-researched with John Gayford of Warlingham Hospital), Pizzey distinguished between "genuine battered women" In her book
Prone to Violence, Pizzey expressed concern that so little attention was paid to the causes of interpersonal and family violence, stating, "to my amazement, nobody seemed to genuinely want to find out why violent people treat each other the way they do". She also expressed concern for the view expressed by government officials that solutions to the issue of domestic abuse and violence could be found in
socialist or
communist countries. Pizzey pointed out that marital violence was a great problem in
Russia, and
China addressed the issue by proclaiming wife-beating a crime punishable by
death sentence. and Pizzey reported that she herself and co-author Jeff Shapiro needed police protection during the promotional events for the book. and defamation campaigns, and dealing with overwork, near collapse, cardiac disease and mental strain. Having moved to Santa Fe to write, Pizzey promptly became involved in running a refuge in
New Mexico, as well as dealing with sexual abusers and
paedophiles. While she was living in Santa Fe, one of her dogs was shot and two others were stolen, which she claimed was a result of
racist neighbours. where she wrote with her second husband, Jeff Shapiro. Subsequently, she moved to
Siena, Italy, where her writing and advocacy work continued. She returned to London in the spring of 1997, homeless due to debt and in increasingly poor health. ==Later work==