Former Canadian Football League player Anthony Parker urged Fort Macleod to lead the change in gender-based violence.
Fort Macleod and district residents were encouraged last week to lead the change needed to eliminate gender-based violence.
That change can begin with steps as simple as not telling sexist jokes or using problematic language, and pushing others to follow suit.
“We really want people to go out and become influencers,” said Joe Campbell of the Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters.
Campbell and former Canadian Football League player Anthony Parker made a Leading Change presentation Oct. 24 at the Fort Macleod and District Community Hall.
The presentation was sponsored by the Royal Purple in connection with Family Violence Prevention Month.
The audience of about 18 people was told that approximately every six days, a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner.
“Really, lives are at stake while we’re having this conversation,” Campbell said.
Statistics also show that 64 per cent of people in Canada know a woman who has been physically, sexually or emotionally bused.
“I think it is so much more problematic than we are ready to accept,” Parker said. “We just don‘t talk abut it as a society.”
That has to change, Parker said, if gender-based violence is to end.
The prevalence of domestic violence in Alberta is backed up by statistics.
In 2021-’22, 7,620 women sought refuge in shelters.
Another 17,787 women, children and seniors were turned away due to a lack of capacity in Alberts shelters.
Another 7,303 people accessed shelter outreach services during that same time period.
“Women’s shelters do some amazing work,” Campbell said.
The United Nations and the World Bank have recognized violence against women and girls as a pandemic.
The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls called violence towards Indigenous women “genocide.”
Domestic violence happens in many forms: physical, emotional and psychological, verbal, sexual, financial and spiritual.
Increasing shelter space is not the answer, however.
Changing societal attitudes is the key.
Campbell showed a slide that illustrated the pyramid of gender-based violence.
At the top level is murder, with rape, sexual assault, and physical abuse constituting the second level.
The third level is emotional, financial and spiritual abuse and controlling behaviour.
The fourth level is harassment, threats and verbal abuse.
The fifth level is the trivializing or acceptance of violence against women.
The sixth level is the glass ceiling, gender stereotypes and unequal power between genders.
The seventh or bottom level of the pyramid is made up of sexist, homophobic and transphobic jokes, problematic language and objectification of women.
The acceptance of jokes and language supports the next level of gender stereotypes and an unequal balance of power, and so on up the pyramid.
Parker said even refusing to accept the use of a term like “wife beater” to describe what used to be known as a man’s no-sleeved “muscle” shirt is a step in the right direction.
“If you start knocking off the things at the bottom of the pyramid, the things above it can’t stand,” Parker said.
Parker said everyone has a platform from which they can bring about change, starting with destroying the bottom level of the pyramid of gender-based violence.
“Ultimately our platform and our ability to create change is when we are talking to the people in our inner circle,” Parker said.
For information visit www.ledingchange@acws.ca.
