The Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester have joined public services across the city-region to reiterate their commitment to tackling gender-based violence in all its forms.
Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) are once again White Ribbon accredited and, for the first time, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) has been officially accredited by the charity.
Campaigns and activities are taking place in districts across the city-region for White Ribbon Day, which also marks the start of 16 days of international activism against gender-based violence and supports Greater Manchester’s 10-year Gender-Based Violence Strategy.
It comes as new survey results revel that only 36% of men have challenged a friend who made sexual jokes about women to other men and just 38% have asked a woman if she was okay after they thought a man’s behaviour was making her uncomfortable. The results demonstrate the importance of the Mayor of Greater Manchester’s #IsThisOK? campaign, which challenges the everyday behaviours of men and boys towards women and girls in public spaces.
Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said:
“For too long, women and girls have had to make changes in their daily lives in response to the behaviour of, primarily, men and boys. Whilst we know this is not the behaviour of every man and boy, we do know that every woman and girl will recognise and have experienced the behaviours shown in our campaign films at some point. This is the story of gender-based violence in Greater Manchester.
“But we can, and must, change this story. We call on men and boys to follow our #IsThisOK? campaign and, more importantly, keep this conversation going.
“The campaign is just one part of our ongoing work to tackle gender-based violence and our whole-system approach. This means that Greater Manchester partners and authorities are coming together to tackle the issue as a collective and that’s why it’s important to see our organisations recognise White Ribbon Day, with GMCA, GMFRS and TfGM all White Ribbon accredited, the latter for the first time this year.”
