- Target:
- Violence against women
- Region:
- Australia
- Website:
- afl.com.au
Father's Day is a celebration of one of the most important roles in the world. It's a time to appreciate the joy, love and trust that our children give us; and to be proud of what we can do for our kids.
Father’s Day is also a great opportunity for fathers, and men in general, to reflect on what it means to be a dad. It’s a chance to ask ourselves some important questions:
• How do I want my kids to think of me?
• What am I showing my son about respect for women?
• How do I want my daughter to be treated by her partner in the future?
• What response would I feel proud to make in front of my kids, when another man says something demeaning about women?
The answers we give to these questions today will have a huge impact on the kind of society that our kids grow up in.
At the moment, violence and abuse in the home affects at least one in five families in Australia. This violence and abuse can take many forms – emotional, verbal, social, financial, sexual and physical. It affects not only mothers, but also many, many thousands of children. If men continue to reinforce the idea that women and girls have less value and are entitled to less respect, what does the future hold — for our kids and everyone else's?
This Father's Day, AFL footballers, the AFL and No To Violence invite you to make a pledge to help make the world a safer place for women and children. Please join us, as we work with fathers, mothers, women and men across the world in doing all we can to reduce violence against women.
Pledge
I strongly believe women have a right to make their own decisions and live without fear.
To make the world a safer place for women and children, I pledge that:
• I will always take into account the fact that children look to me to set a good example of how to treat others;
• I will find out more about how violence and abuse affects women, by listening to women’s experiences if they feel safe and comfortable to discuss them;
• I will listen, support and take seriously any woman who tells me that she has experienced violence;
• I will treat my partner with respect, to help her feel:
- good about herself
- free to say no to things she doesn’t want to do
- safe and never scared of me
- free to see her friends and family when she wants
- free to express her opinions and beliefs;
• I will take my share of responsibility, caring for children and taking care of my relationships;
• I will challenge sexist language and jokes that are disrespectful to women.
I will do these things in the hope that my efforts, along with those of my family, friends, colleagues and people I don't even know, will make a better world for my own kids and everyone else's.
You can further help this campaign by sponsoring it
The Father's Day Pledge petition to Violence against women was written by No To Violence and is in the category Human Rights at GoPetition.