How you help move victims of violence from crisis to confidence	Edition 1, Issue 1

Domestic Violence Isn’t My Business. Or is it?

"Like most American women,” says Brooke McMurray, “domestic violence doesn’t just stay at home anymore. Abusers follow their victims to work. They stalk us. They harass us on the phone. They slip past the receptionist to terrorize us and our coworkers. They hurt us — and in the most extreme cases — even kill us and others in their path. I say ‘us’ because I am a survivor of domestic violence.

“My life seemed a quintessential New York success story. I graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude from Smith College and married an Ivy League graduate. Everyone thought I had married the perfect man. We lived in a brownstone just off Fifth Avenue and belonged to a country club. I was on the management track at Time, Inc., and my husband worked across the street at one of the city’s leading investment banks. My life was
a perfect hell."

“My husband regularly tied me up, beat me, pushed me down stairs and out of windows, locked me out of our home, isolated me from family and friends, and blamed me literally for everything. He also tried to prevent me from going to work by cutting up all of my clothes.”

Thankfully, Brooke McMurray got help, escaped her abusive marriage, and got her life back — including a rewarding professional life. Today Brooke is the chair of Safe Horizon’s Board of Directors and a leading national advocate who speaks out about the impact of domestic violence at home and in the workplace. “My office was the one place my husband could not hurt me,” she says.

“Work was where I came to rest and to feel productive and, well, normal. To avoid him, for years I used the freight elevator to come and go from the office. But outside of the man who ran that elevator, I told no one at work about what was happening to me. I figured I would lose my job.

“Today, some companies still say that addressing domestic violence is none of their business. I say not only is it their business, it’s good business.”

According to a recent survey, 21% of working Americans said they were victims of domestic violence. How does this impact the workplace? American companies will lose 8 million days of paid work this year because of domestic violence and cost employers an estimated $5 billion through this lost productivity and related medical expenses. And despite increased corporate awareness of the issue and its impact on the bottom line, most American businesses lack a workplace domestic violence policy.

“It’s time for corporate America to take a stand on domestic violence,” Brooke says. “Corporate leaders must create a culture where women are not afraid or embarrassed to come forward with the truth. The man who runs the freight elevator should not be the only person who knows.”

LEARN MORE:
Learn more about Brooke’s inspiring story.

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