International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women — Congregation of Sisters of St Joseph in Canada, Theater News

However, public protests, stories, and reports have been effective in reducing sexual violence in Canada. Women’s persistence in reporting sexual abuse in universities and places of work has achieved results.  Complaints about police abusing women are now taken seriously.  Progress has been slow in changing, practices in the Armed Forces to provide justice for women, but there is progress. The “Me Too” movement has encouraged women to speak about abuse and demand justice. Women are more likely to complain of abuse and seek justice without being ignored.

I have observed how women have stopped abuse by changing themselves. Some women have told me how one day they decided that they would no longer tolerate spousal abuse. Their firm declaration of this brought an end to the abuse. A woman who ends an abusive relationship without changing herself is likely to repeat the pattern with a subsequent partner. On one occasion, I asked a client who was in an abusive relationship, how she had taught her first husband that it was all right for him to beat her up.  After a startled reaction, she exclaimed: “I guess I let him get away with it the first time”.  I asked how she stopped the abuse and she replied: “I left him.”  She then began to pay attention to how her failure to listen to what she felt or wanted left her open to the unreasonable demands and abusive treatment by others, including her current partner. Her decision to change brought results. She discontinued allowing herself to be the subject of abuse or the unreasonable demands of friends and relatives.

Women have been indoctrinated to be caregivers and prioritize the needs of others.  We cannot solve the widespread problem of violence against women but we can help women, particularly young women, to respect their own freedom and dignity so that they are less likely to be subject to abusive partners, friends, and relatives.

Today we unite to End Violence against Women. #NoExcuse

-Sister Patricia McKeon, CSJ