Why is a woman automatically considered the abused and not the abuser?

In my experience - women are not always considered 'the abused'. How it works here, is in any physical altercation both (or all) parties are hancuffed and taken to holding cells until the situation is calm and sorted out.

Because women have a much better lobby group ????

Because historically it has generally been the case. Generally speaking, men are bigger, stronger, and more assertive than women. Historically woman are weak and feable, and not allowed to stand up for themselves.

I think these days it's somewhat different. But the assumption is still there.

There are a lot of good answers above. However, one of the key reasons is ignored -- it is the way the laws are written. In the context of adults, abuse historically has referred to physical abuse in the law. Only recently has our society considered psychological abuse to be on the same plane as physical and the courts have not caught up as yet. Women typically abuse other adults psychologically whereas men abuse physically. Some abusive and manipulative women are masterful in "pushing a man's buttons" by attacking him psychologically where she knows it will hurt. When this happens, the woman escalates the abuse until the man responds physically at which point she reports the "abuse" causing the man to be arrested. Unfortunately, if the woman's abuse is not precisely calibrated or the man is atypically angry or incited, his physical reaction can have horrible consequences in damage or death of the woman.

This is not to suggest that a man ever should use physical force against a woman. Unfortunately, we all know that when pushed too far, people "lose it" and react inappropriately.

Physical abuse of a man by a woman is rare because of the typical differences in body mass, size, and strength. However it does occur, as does psycological abuse by men.

Don't get me started on this!

Not always true.

But then I'm from Texas, where the women are tough as nails. The police here know to take both genders quite seriously in domestic disputes.

Because people think women are weak. Boy, are they wrong.