Friday essay: ‘A prisoner on the rack’ – how 19th-century Australian women wrote about marital rape At a time when women had limited rights, writers found ways to raise the issues of coercion and control.

“I lay me down upon my bed,
A prisoner on the rack,
And suffer dumbly, as I must,
Till the kind day comes back.”

#MaritalRape #DomesticViolence #AustralianLaw #WomensHistory #WomensPresent #HERstory