ABSTRACT
Francis Bacon, chancellor of England, observed that, “All kinds of constraints are unhappy—that of silence is the most miserable of all”. The constraint of silence may be self-imposed, as a result of shyness or of a sense of personal inadequacy. Moments of silence between two people in a relationship may be a sign of that couple’s deep understanding of one another, and of their wonder at the experience of love and of their shared perceptions of reality. Within the home, silence can be very frustrating for an individual who feels that a partner is freezing her or him out. This may be so notwithstanding the fact that the silent partner appears to wish to continue the relationship and even denies that there is a problem. If one of the ways in which the silencing of women is achieved is by means of bullying, women are by no means the only ones who experience bullying.
