Opinion: violence against women isn’t just a women’s issue

By Maddie Garvis//

One of every three women worldwide are victim to physical or sexual violence at some point in their lifetime. This statistic comes from the World Health Organization’s most recent study on violence against women and has been a sad reality of the past decade as that number has remained mostly unchanged.

In early March, the murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard as she was walking home in South London sparked anger in women all over the world. Women everywhere are demanding that violence against women be addressed more seriously instead of being brushed over and accepted as part of life.

According to the UN Women Committee, 97% of women ages 18-24 in the UK have experienced some form of sexual harassment in public settings.

97%. 

This statistic is devastating.

But women are already doing everything they can to protect themselves.

Be home before dark so you don’t have to walk alone in it. Hold your pepper spray in your right hand, keys between your knuckles in your left. Check the backseat of your car before you get into it. Be aware of who’s walking behind you. In front of you. Next to you. Didn’t that car already drive past me once? Why are they slowing down next to me?

Send your friends your location when you go on a Tinder date. Call them when you get home, so they know you’re okay. Ignore the guy staring at you from across the street. Brush off the comments about your breasts, your waist, your clothes, your legs, your ass, your face; why isn’t there a smile on it?

Instead of telling women to be more vigilant, to be more aware, to be more protective, we need men to be more accountable. For themselves, and for each other.

You always hear the line that every man has a mother, a sister, a girlfriend, or a wife. But every man also has a father. Or a brother. Friends.

Talk to them. Don’t be a bystander to their problematic behavior towards women. Women too. Women, talk to your brother, your father, your male friends. Be aware of their behavior toward women who aren’t you.

When your friend catcalls a woman walking down the sidewalk, don’t just laugh it off.

Discourage it. Admonish it. Explain why it isn’t OK, why it isn’t cool, why it isn’t manly. Don’t let them do it to the next woman.

If you are silent, you are complicit.

As long as violence against women is considered only a women’s issue, it won’t get any better. Violence against women is a human issue. It’s time we as a society start to act like it.