Does marching for change, change anything? Why mobilising against male violence changes everything

On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, hundreds of thousands will once again take to the streets to sound the alarm on men’s fatal violence against women. From Santiago to Mexico City, from Khartoum to Johannesburg, and from Seoul to Manila, women’s civil-society movements will march, chant, dance, sing, perform, laugh and raise their voices together in collective resistance, doing the vital work of feminism in their communities and across their territories.

However, we may well ask just how much it takes to shift political will and violent male norms. Efforts of a million marchers can seem to evaporate in the face of political resistance, blindness to a problem or sheer intransigence. And, while gender-based violence of course also affects men, it appears that our majority male governments do not view it as a priority. But, male violence towards women, transwomen and other gender non-conforming people, is not a minority issue. Not when it affects more than half the global population.