Our Watch campaign, Doing nothing does harm
The Our Watch campaign, Doing nothing does harm, aims to motivate and support bystanders to do something when they see or hear disrespect towards women.
Our Watch, a national leader in the primary prevention of violence against women in Australia outlines that doing nothing to stop harmful disrespect in the workplace, does harm and contributes to gender inequality.
Their Doing nothing does harm campaign aims to motivate and support bystanders to do something when they see or hear disrespect towards women.
Disrespect towards women at work can happen during virtual or in-person meetings, through email, or anywhere work gets done. It can look like:
- interrupting, talking over or ignoring women, trans or gender diverse people in face-to-face and virtual meetings
- assuming women, trans or gender diverse people, regardless of their role, will pick up the slack in tasks such as taking minutes, coffee runs, and tidying the office kitchen
- implying women, trans or gender diverse people don’t have the leadership skills to manage difficult workplace situations
- making sexist, homophobic or looks-based comments about co-workers
- attempting to silence women, trans or gender diverse people, or dismiss their viewpoints by not inviting them to meetings or leaving them off email chains.
Our Watch outlines three simple actions you can take:
Show it’s not OK: Use your body language to show disapproval. For instance: rolling your eyes; shaking your head; not laughing along; walking away.
Support women, trans or gender diverse people by doing something: Ask if they are OK; acknowledge what happened, back up people doing something.
Speak up if you hear disrespectful comments: Question sexist or heterosexist jokes; ask them to stop; make a light-hearted comment to deflect; purposely change the topic.
How would you show it’s not OK, in the following scenario?
How would you support women in the following scenario?
Would you speak up in the following scenario?