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Leigh, who has been working in anti-violence against women for the past two decades, including almost 10 years with the Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women, says women should not have to change the way they live to stay safe.
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Instead, she says, leaders should come together in a shared effort to create a society where women can feel safe by focusing on prevention through education.
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Friday’s community walk was a great example, she said, because it helped challenge the attitudes and behaviours that lead to violence against women.
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“Prevention work includes working with children and raising our boys and our girls to learn that violence isn’t okay, to always seek consent, to recognize the value of different people,” Leigh said.
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Street harassment ‘not new’
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Various forms of violence against women in public spaces are not new, Leigh says. The difference in modern day iterations of gender-based violence lies in the polarization of ideologies, especially online.
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“We’ve heard of the increases in sort of far-right digital discourses and the manosphere,” she said.
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In a 40-page study released on Nov. 2, Health Canada found that online and social pressures could cause psychological harm in men, who were pressured to meet narrow expectations of what it meant to be a man. The What We Heard Report surveyed 5,246 people aged 16 and older living in Canada through an online questionnaire.
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Leigh says misogyny and violence against women is often rooted in the need for power, control and the maintenance of dominance.
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“If people have other ways to connect and feel better about themselves, then they don’t have to rely on violence to feel like they have power,” she said, adding that it was important to create spaces where men and boys could also feel safe.
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‘This is everyone’s issue’
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In a city wher