On this episode of the FiLiA Podcast, Joan Smith talks to FiLiA’s Sally Jackson about the many ways in which our patriarchal system fails Women who have been subjected to violence from men.

Joan Smith is a novelist, journalist and human rights activist. She began writing about violence against women after covering the murders carried out by Peter Sutcliffe in the north of England, which she described in her book Misogynies. She is also the author of the Loretta Lawson crime novels, two of which were filmed by the BBC. She is a former Chair of the English PEN Writers in Prison Committee and has been Co-chair of the Mayor of London’s VAWG Board since 2013.

Her latest book is Home Grown: How Domestic Violence Turns Men Into Terrorists.

Follow Joan on Twitter at @pollblonde