​Women's groups should rethink women-dominated staffing structures conference hears

Groups campaigning against violence against women should listen to men’s views when creating policies, international experts have urged.

Female-dominated support organisations have traditionally excluded men at staff and board level to enable a secure environment for their exclusively female service users.

However a conference in Ottawa organised by the World Health Organisation heard that the strategy should be reappraised following recent high profile sexual abuse cases, namely the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

Christine Goodall, of Scottish charity Medics Against Violence, who spoke at the conference, led calls for men to be included.

She said: “I would like more men to be party to policy making, on a government level. I have sat on groups which deal with gender-based violence and it is all women in the room. It could be seen as being very anti-men and that is unhelpful.

“Instead, I would like to see men more involved in training around domestic abuse so they can step up and take a stand.

“I would like to see the men who don’t abuse women taking a stand with the men who do or participate in everyday sexism.

“Some men are the problem but men are also part the solution.”

Goodall’s views were followed by similar opinions expressed by international experts at the talks. They stressed the importance of having men at the table, both helping to formulate policy on violence and making practical interventions to prevent it.

Claire Crooks, a clinical psychologist and associate professor from Western University in Canada, said: “We wouldn’t say that racism was a minority issue, for example. So we have to have men at the table.

“But it has to be men realising they are not going to be experts telling women how things need to be. It takes a certain type of male leaders.

“Our prime minister, Justin Trudeau, is a great role model. He says I am a feminist and my wife taught me how to be one. So it is claiming a role by recognising the leadership of women.”

Scottish Women’s Aid, has kept men out of its structures for 40 years.

Chief executive Marsha Scott said: “There is nothing new about this call, and we have always worked alongside male allies, especially those in police and other public services as well as with the men in White Ribbon Scotland.

“There has always been room at the policy and justice table for men to take responsibility for gendered violence. That only a few have responded has little to do with us I think and more to do with a lack of interest.”

Scott added: “The lack of men who take violence against women and children seriously must not be laid at the door of women’s organisations and is in effect another version of victim blaming.

“Having said that, I find some hopeful signs that powerful men and women are willing to grasp the nettle of real change.”