YWCA Evanston/North Shore hosted keynote speaker Jackson Katz at “Allies for Change: Men Taking Action Against Gender-Based Violence” Thursday in the North Shore Conference Center at DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Chicago.
Katz’s remarks centered on shifting the responsibility to men when it comes to issues of domestic violence, sexual assault and sexual harassment.
He said the way society talks about these topics plays a large role in complicating prevention of gender-based violence.
“Everybody is concerned and should be concerned with these issues, but I think the very act of calling them women’s issues is part of the problem, in part, because it gives men an excuse not to pay attention,” Katz said.
He gave a brief demonstration on poster paper reminiscent of an exercise he did in his 2012 TED Talk, titled “Violence against women — it’s a men’s issue,” displaying the effects of using passive versus active voice when discussing gender-based violence. He cautioned against making perpetrators of violence a passive actor in everyday language.
Katz also emphasized the advantages of feminism for both men and women, even though it is commonly seen as something only benefiting women, he said.
An educator and author, Katz co-founded Mentors in Violence Prevention, a gender violence prevention program that introduced the “bystander” approach. He previously partnered with YWCA and Oakton College as a guest lecturer at a gender violence prevention workshop in 2017.
Throughout the two hour keynote speech, Katz brought palpable passion and urgency to the topic of mobilizing men against gender-based violence, gripping the podium and leaning toward the audience to convey his message with emotion.
Katz confessed that he had considered “scrapping” his entire speech because it was written before the 2024 presidential election.
Although he sometimes kept discussion of the current political climate vague, stating that he didn’t expect the audience to share his political beliefs, he did make his thoughts on the Trump administration clear regarding its effect on funding and support for the prevention of gender-based violence.
“It’s impossible to talk about the subject of the crisis of men’s violence against women and not talk about the catastrophe that’s been happening in our country since January 20,” Katz said.
Katz’s address was presented by YWCA’s Alternatives to Violence Program. Before Katz took the stage, Hillary Douin, the director of YWCA’s Domestic Violence Program, said the program takes a comprehensive approach to domestic violence prevention, including working with people who perpetuate harm.
“People are wondering right now, in this climate of what’s going on, how do we be the change?” Douin said. “How we do that is by coming together in community and attending things like this and joining our collective power together and living in our values and principles.”
Arlington Heights resident Shawn Rivera, a prevention educator at Northwest Center Against Sexual Assault, said he hoped to bring takeaways from the event back to his work and personal life.
“Every day we’re learning, especially in this kind of field, things are always changing,” Rivera said. “As long as we’re all here in this space, I feel like everyone here can bring change.”
The event ended with a question and answer session that allowed attendees to make comments about the contents of the talk.
Katz encouraged attendees to implement his suggestions and teachings in their daily lives.
“I do think there (are) millions of men who are already sort of, in one sense, in agreement that there’s a problem with the status quo,” Katz said. “I think those men need to be mobilized, not just engaged.”
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