Young men and women bravely walked down to the front of the room to tell their stories.  Their words often conveyed pain, but mostly revealed inspiring strength and determination as well as compassion for each other.

Earlier in the evening, their voices, speaking as one, had filled the night air, to shatter the silence and show that this is a community that stands together against gender-based violence.

Indeed, making our voices heard is one of the key elements of Take Back the Night – from the keynote address at Loyola, to the candlelight march down St. Charles Avenue and Broadway Street, to the speak out at Tulane’s Myra Clare Rogers Chapel. 

This important event took place in October¬¬¬¬ — Domestic Violence Awareness month – and was one of several on our campus and in our community that called attention to the issue of gender-based violence. 

The statistics are sobering: One in four college women report surviving rape (15 percent) or attempted rape (12 percent) since their 14th birthday. 

Rape can have a devastating impact on the mental health of victims, with one-third of rape survivors contemplating suicide and/or developing rape-related Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder sometime in their lifetime.

On average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends in this country every day.

Around the world, at least one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime.

During this month, as we recommit ourselves to working to end the violence, we recognize and honor those who have lost their lives, and we support the survivors in their brave journey to reclaiming their lives.

But the violence doesn’t limit itself to one month.  And it doesn’t limit itself to one particular place or one particular age, race or socio-economic class. 

It cuts across different categories. Gender-based violence happens in countries and cultures around the world, the victims being predominantly girls and women.

Some of the violence we hear about – female genital mutilation, bride burnings, stoning, sex-selective abortion, human trafficking and sexual slavery, rape as a strategy of war – may seem foreign and far removed.  

But all gender-based violence shares a common root cause: a devaluing of the lives of women and girls. Also, some of these things are closer to home than you may know. For instance, the I-10 corridor is the primary route in this country for human trafficking.

Therefore, when we speak out against the violence and stand as a community, we should do so with a recognition of the ways we are all tied together as part of a larger, global community.

For the past 40 years, the field of Women’s Studies has been an important source for helping us to understand some of the underlying dynamics at work in the kinds of violence women experience around the world. 

Women’s Studies encourages a critical analysis of the cultural, social, and political forces that shape the ways we think. 

Further, feminist scholars and activists have long recognized the importance of women speaking out about their personal experiences as a means to transform society.

To tell the truth is an act of bravery, it is also a political act, a consciousness-raising act, and a social justice act.

Events like Take Back the Night remind us of the power we have as individuals and as a community to effect meaningful change. 

When we give voice to the anger, pain and sadness we can reclaim our capacity to be whole and make progress toward finding solutions to the problem of gender-based violence.

Karen Reichard is the director for the  Women’s Resource Center.

She can be reached at [email protected]

On The Record is a weekly column open to any Loyola faculty or staff.

Those who are interested can e-mail [email protected].