Abstract: To study the seismic behavior of shear walls, eight steel reinforced concrete (SRC) shear walls were tested under reversed cyclic lateral loads with varied axial load ratio, steel ratio and stirrup characteristic value. Their effects on the hysteretic characteristics were investigated. Based on the experimental results, the restoring force model of SRC shear walls is established. A four-linear skeleton curve model including stiffness degradation was proposed, which was defined through cracking point, yield point, peak point and ultimate point. The formula to calculate these points are recommended through theoretical analysis. The results show that the calculated restoring model agrees well with the experimental result, which can be conveniently applied to nonlinear dynamic analysis of SRC shear wall buildings.