Men, Help End Violence Against Women on International Women's Day

March 8 is International Women’s Day. Although women in Canada seem, on the surface, to have equality with men, we still lag behind. Economic equality and violence against women are two areas that come to mind.

This year, Canada’s theme for International Women’s Day 2013 is Working Together: Engaging Men to End Violence against Women. Without men’s understanding of the issue, and their cooperation, we can’t end violence against women. We need to work together.

Violence against women in Canada

These figures show that we still have a long way to go in Canada to end violence against women:

• 51 percent of Canadian women over 16 have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence
• every minute a Canadian woman or child is sexually assaulted
• only 22 percent of spousal violence incidents are reported to police
• women are 3 times more likely to be murdered than men
• men are the offenders in 90 percent of spousal assault cases

According to the White Ribbon Campaign, little research has been done into Canadian men’s attitudes toward violence against women. They state that “most men appear to be caught between knowing the importance of speaking out about violence against women and the unwillingness or perceived lack of knowledge or skills to intervene should the issue arise.”

Yet 75 percent of men feel it’s important to speak out about violence against women, and 66 percent of men feel they could do more.

On that note, today’s a good time to start a dialogue about how to end violence against women. Let us know what you think. Leave a comment on this blog or on Twitter or Facebook.