‘Don’t leave it until it’s too late to step in.’ That was the powerful message from Rail Business Daily’s CEO as he reminded staff about the importance of calling out violence against women, on White Ribbon Day.
During an educational seminar with all staff, David McLoughlin – who runs the UK’s largest media company within rail – shared his own personal story of witnessing harmful behaviour against a family member, as he reminded the team about the importance of ‘stepping up’ against harmful attitudes, behaviours and violence towards women.
The seminar was held for White Ribbon Day – a campaign to end male violence against women and children.
“The sad reality is, to a degree, we’ve all seen harmful behaviour by men and boys towards women and girls,’ David said.
“Sometimes it’s overt actions, sometimes covert actions, whether it’s language that we see used by men towards women, and most of us don’t act, and why don’t we?
“It’s because generally it’s hard, it’s embarrassing, it’s difficult to find the right way to step in when you see things happening. But the point is, that’s exactly what we should be doing. Calling out these harmful behaviours when you see it happening is very important.”
David opened up about his own regrets over not ‘stepping up’ sooner when – many years ago – a family member was suffering emotional abuse in her marriage.
“Quite a few years ago I failed someone,’ he said.
“I saw how her husband treated her, he didn’t hit her but he didn’t treat her well, there was sly digs, comments that were meant to be funny but were said at her expense, and I didn’t speak out, I didn’t say anything to him.
“I talked to my wife about it, I talked to my mum about it, but we didn’t do anything. I reassured myself that it was for them to sort out themselves. You think to yourself ‘what can I do?’
“One night she did reach out to me and we were able to help her leave him and help get her life back together again. Thank god this was before it was too late.
“It was different to know what I could have done differently, but the point was, I didn’t do anything until right at the end. Not everyone will be as fortunate as her, so my message to everyone is ‘don’t leave it until it’s too late to step in.’
“Men, women, we can all make that difference. We can all take responsibility for thinking about our own actions, promote equality and respect and be prepared to call out harassment, sexist and violent behaviour when we see it in others.”
Rail Business Daily is one of many organisations which is White Ribbon accredited, which strives to provide a workplace which offers equality for all.
White Ribbon Day on Friday, November 25 – marks the beginning of 16 days of action to try to bring unacceptable behaviour to an end – calling for everyone in communities, organisations and workplaces to come together and say ‘no’ unequivocally to these criminal acts.
This year, White Ribbon Day falls during the FIFA men’s World Cup, which led the charity to launch its #TheGoal campaign which brings together men and boys to think about how they can make a positive difference to achieve equality and safety for women and girls.
David added: “There’s never been a better time for us to come together and start playing as a team to end male violence against women and girls and achieve the goal of a society of equality and inclusivity and above all, to make the world a safer place.
“White Ribbon are bringing #thegoal to stations across the UK to highlight how passengers and stations and customers can foster the 11 traits that we can all follow on our commute, in and out of stations and within our work environments.
“I am pleased to say that we have a number of our team attending stations to promote the campaign and #TheGoal.
“No one will pretend that White Ribbon Day will totally solve the problem, but it’s a start that you, me, everyone can be part of.”
White Ribbon UK urges everyone, especially men to make the White Ribbon promise. You can learn more about the pledge here.
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