Susan Schechter, 57; Author Wrote Resource for Battered Women

Susan Schechter, 57, whose books on domestic violence spurred assistance for battered women, died Feb. 3 at her home in Iowa City, Iowa, of endometrial cancer.

She was the author of the groundbreaking 1982 book “Women and Male Violence: The Visions and Struggles of the Battered Women’s Movement.” With other authors, she subsequently wrote the 1992 “When Love Goes Wrong,” a resource for abused women, and in 1999 wrote a set of guidelines for use by professionals in civil courts, child welfare services and domestic violence programs.

Born in St. Louis, she was educated in social work at Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Illinois at Chicago.

She helped organize Chicago’s first shelter for abused women, and later started a program at Children’s Hospital in Boston for battered women with abused children. Since 1993, Schechter had been a clinical professor of social work at the University of Iowa.