Trump’s Election Raises Fears Of Increased Violence Against Women “If someone is being violated and the president of the United States doesn’t see that as a problem, they may not tell anyone.” 11/15/2016 07:00 am ET

In 1981, when Rita Smith was hired as a crisis counselor at a battered women’s shelter in Colorado, it was still legal for a man to rape his wife in most of the country. There was no national hotline for victims of abuse to call for help. The 1994 landmark Violence Against Women Act ― the first federal legislation acknowledging domestic violence and sexual assault as crimes ― was only a seed in the minds of ambitious advocates like herself.  

Thirty-five years and countless women’s rights victories later, Smith sat at her nephew’s house last Tuesday ready to witness Democratic candidate Hillary Clintonmake history. Many pundits and pollsters had declared the race a lock, the first female president all but elected. Instead, Smith watched in bewilderment as voters eschewed Clinton for Republican Donald Trump, who had bragged about groping women without permission and was accused of sexually assaulting more than a dozen women over his lifetime.

Smith went home before the election was called and hasn’t watched the news since. She’s not ready.   

“I thought we had made more progress. That’s part of what my grief is about,” she said in an interview with The Huffington Post on Thursday. “We haven’t done nearly enough to change the culture that tolerates and accepts this type of violence.” more