She Ran

Through the lens of a tragic 1975 murder and a piercing critique of media narratives, Ann Rauhala brings intimate partner violence out of the shadows.

Almost every other day, a woman in Canada is murdered by her partner. Domestic violence kills as many as 187 women each year while terrorizing or maiming untold thousands, including children and bystanders. Gender-related homicide of women and girls rose by 14 percent between 2020 and 2021, reaching its highest level since 2017. It is the most predictable category of murder, and yet too few of us know how this happens or how insidiously it affects everyone.

Part memoir, part investigative journalism, She Ran: The Media and the Public Response to Domestic Violence explores how news media have helped perpetuate or correct myths surrounding intimate partner violence (IPV). Challenging the idea that IPV is simply an “isolated incident,” author and journalist Ann Rauhala highlights its reality as a widespread crisis, making the case that the media — and the public — can and should help lead the way in prevention.

Rauhala reviews her experiences as an editor and women’s issues reporter for The Globe and Mail, her responsibilities as a journalism professor, her circumstances as a survivor of IPV, and her grief over the loss of her best friend. Dissecting media and public misconceptions, failures in legal and economic systems, and stigmas about IPV, Rauhala offers a vital perspective that calls for deeper awareness, wider accountability, and greater public commitment to confront this violence.