Child sexual abuse continues to be a problem despite efforts towards prevention. The burden of protecting children still falls mainly on women, yet society's general attitudes take away from women the tools they need to do this job. Mothers of sexually abused children have been blamed for their daughters' abuse because of their emotional neediness, passivity, multiple marriages, masochistic suffering, frigidity, and dependency. The preponderance of family systems theory led to the beliefs that when speaking of father-daughter incest, the marital relationship breaks down, the mother is unable to practice her roles as wife and mother, she encourages the oldest daughter to become a substitute, and it is her fault that any of this happened. The newer literature points to the importance of empowering women so that children will be protected. Research has begun to examine the men who were abusing their daughters or sons and found they were having relations with their wives at the same time. Differences in the amount of power men and women have in society was seen as contributing to occurrences of abuse. Women who are themselves abused have little chance of helping their children. If the goal is to end abuse, women must be strengthened with real competence so that they do not feel any need for vengeance. Mothers universally developing confidence, reaching out from isolation, and becoming in tune with their children will help protect future generations. (ABL)