Women, Violence Expert Receives National Honor

CHICAGO

A University of Illinois at Chicago sociologist's groundbreaking research on incarcerated women and the role violence plays in their lives earned her honors last month from a national organization.

Dr. Beth Richie, head of African American studies at UIC, received the Bella Abzug Woman of Honor award from the Chicago chapter of the National Organization for Women.

"We wanted to acknowledge Richie's leadership and tremendous contributions to understanding women and violence. Through her work, she truly has made a difference for millions of women," says Jennifer Koehler, president of the Chicago chapter of the National Organization for Women.

Richie, a distinguished scholar and author of Compelled to Crime: The Gender Entrapment of Battered Black Women (Routledge Press, 1996), is actively working in several areas of research, including a National Institute for Justice-funded study on incarcerated women who experience domestic and sexual violence.

Richie said she was "very honored" to receive the award. "More importantly, I am glad that the issues I work on as a scholar and activist — violence against women and the mass incarceration of Black women — are receiving attention," she says.

Bella Abzug was a congresswoman from New York elected on a women's rights/peace platform. Abzug was a lifelong activist in support of civil rights, equal rights for women and disarmament. She died in 1998.

Past winners of the Bella Abzug Woman of Honor Award include Fay Clayton, Mary Morten, Ann Ladky and Toni Bond.

The National Organization for Women is the largest organization of feminist activists in the United States with 500,000 contributing members and 550 chapters in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.