ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how rape, sexual harassment, and woman battery issues came to the public agenda, the policy debates that ensued, the changes in the law that resulted, and assessments of their effectiveness. Feminist theorists and political activists have brought attention to three sexuality issues-rape, sexual harassment, and woman battery. Rape became sexual assault, woman battery became domestic violence, and sexual harassment was something that could happen to anyone. Giving up their control over the definition of these issues seemed to feminists to be a necessary strategy in order to achieve any policy reforms. Most women's rights advocates agree that reforms should promote sexual autonomy for women. Yet conflicts over equality and difference endemic to feminist discourse about other issues plague attempts to compose a specific set of policy demands. As a result, rape, harassment, and woman battery were first seen publicly as matters relating to women's empowerment and liberation from male dominance.
