October 23, 2003
Men called upon for women’s center event
Attention all men. Women on this campus would like to make a date with you — a date to begin the end of violence against women.
The Women’s Center is holding a conference on Saturday, Nov. 1 that is geared toward men and what they can do to help put an end to domestic violence. Violence: A Community Problem will run from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and will feature, among other things, keynote addresses by two men, Jackson Katz and Michael Kaufman. Involving men in the effort to end domestic violence is a logical next step, according to Sutapa Basu, director of the Women’s Center.
“Every 7 seconds a woman in this country experiences domestic violence,” Basu said. “We’ve been working on this issue for years and the problem has not gone away. So it’s time that this become a community issue. Men need to be a part of this. That’s why we’re focusing on men.”
Basu and others at the Women’s Center have been busy recruiting participants. They’ve talked with faculty, they’ve talked to fraternities and they’ve worked with a Seattle group of men working to end violence against women. While the center’s events typically draw mostly women, Basu said she hopes to see 400 people at the event in Kane Hall and hopes that 70 percent of the group is men.
Katz and Kaufman could help her cause. Katz’s message is regularly geared toward men and he’s delivered it to such traditionally male-dominated groups as the Marine Corps, several major college athletic departments and even the Seattle Mariners.
Katz says our society needs to adjust its thinking. Violence against women has always been considered a women’s issue, he says. But he doesn’t see it that way at all.
“Violence in general and gender violence in particular is overwhelmingly perpetrated by men,” he said recently from his home in Long Beach, Calif. “People often think rape is a women’s issue. But what percentage of rape is perpetrated by women? It’s literally less than 1 percent. Another way of saying that is that more than 99 percent of the perpetrators are men — and we call rape a women’s issue?”
Katz will encourage men to take some responsibility for the issue and to hold each other accountable.
Likewise, Michael Kaufman, founder of the White Ribbon Campaign, will urge men to speak out against violence against women. For too long, he says, men have remained silent and through their silence, allowed the violence to continue. His White Ribbon Campaign began in 1991 when a handful of Canadian men decided they had a responsibility to speak out against such violence against women.
The campaign is highlighted by men wearing a white ribbon on Nov. 25, the International Day for the Eradication of Violence Against Women. The ribbon symbolizes a man’s pledge to never commit, condone, or remain silent about violence against women.
In addition to lecturing, Katz and Kaufman will facilitate panel groups. “Young Men As Allies for Preventing Violence Against Women” will be facilitated by Katz and will include Minister Chris Barry, representatives from the Western Washington University Men Against Violence, and representatives from other local and student organizations. “Communities CAN Prevent Violence Against Women” will be facilitated by Kaufman and will include the UW’s Carolyn West, Judge James M. Riehl and local attorney Eileen M. Concannon.
The conference will also include a presentation by officers from the Seattle Police Department’s domestic violence unit.
Registration for the event is $15 and is available via telephone at 206-685-1090 or on the Web at http://depts.washington.edu/womenctr/. The fee covers a box lunch. Registration is free for students.
