Susan Schechter, whose books about domestic violence helped to unify the movement to assist battered women and bridge the gap between programs addressing domestic abuse and those for children’s welfare, has died at 57.
She died Feb. 3 in Iowa City, of endometrial cancer, said her husband, Allen Steinberg.
Ms. Schecter’s 1982 book, “Women and Male Violence: The Visions and Struggles of the Battered Women’s Movement,” a history and analysis of early efforts against domestic violence, is considered a groundbreaking work.
Ms. Schechter wrote “When Love Goes Wrong” in 1992 with journalist Ann Jones. It was intended as a resource for abused women. In 1999, she co-wrote guidelines for professionals in civil courts, child welfare services and domestic violence programs.
In her writing, Ms. Schechter explored the ways domestic abuse affected children.
Ms. Schechter was born on May 1, 1946, in St. Louis.
She received a bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis and a master’s degree in social work from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
After graduating, she helped organize a shelter for abused women in Chicago.
In 1986, at Children’s Hospital Boston, she started a program for battered women with abused children.
She had been a clinical professor of social work at the University of Iowa since 1993.
