Thirty male students strapped on stilettos, slipped on pumps and paraded along a mile-long path at Monmouth University to take part in the Walk a Mile in Her Shoes campaign.
The Nov. 4 walk, attended by an estimated 300 people, was held in conjunction with the global White Ribbon Campaign, a program for men that aims to end violence against women and girls.
“It was really impressive,” Monmouth University Residence Hall Director Chris McKittrick said last week.
“I was hoping for maybe 20 to 30 people to show up, and we had 300,” McKittrick said. “It was impressive to see that solid line of folks from the Wilson Hall steps all the way to the underpass [below Cedar Avenue]. That’s about one-fifth of a mile of just people.”
The two separate initiatives, the Walk a Mile in Her Shoes and White Ribbon campaigns, both seek to raise awareness of violence against women by men, McKittrick said.
The mission of the White Ribbon Campaign (www.whiteribbon.ca), a worldwide initiative, is to end violence against women perpetrated by men, McKittrick explained.
Begun as a grassroots campaign in Canada following the Montreal Massacre, a mass shooting by a lone male gunman who targeted and killed 14 women and wounded 13 others at the city’s l’École Polytechnique university on Dec. 6, 1989, the White Ribbon Campaign has supporters in some 55 countries around the world.
“A lot of colleges and universities are bringing the White Ribbon Campaign to student groups for men to help encourage men on campus to stand up and end violence against women,” McKittrick explained.
As a residence hall director, McKittrick said he was looking for ways to bring together the student population living on campus.
McKittrick said the White Ribbon Campaign at Monmouth began to take shape after a chance meeting with Lynn Lehrikinder, a counselor at the university, who was seeking to raise awareness of sexual and domestic violence.
“The two of us sort of crossed paths and realized that this would be a great program to bring to campus,” he explained.
According to McKittrick, Lehrikinder was employed at 180 Turning Lives Around, a Hazlet-based nonprofit dedicated to preventing domestic and sexual violence that was hosting a program called Walk a Mile in Her Shoes, an initiative with goals similar to those of the White Ribbon Campaign.
“We were trying to figure [out] … how we could bring this to campus,” McKittrick said, “and we came up with the Walk a Mile in Her Shoes activity, where we ask men to wear women’s shoes and walk a mile in those shoes.
“So in conjunction with 180 Turning Lives Around and the Walk a Mile in Her Shoes campaign, we brought it to campus,” McKittrick said. “And it was really the students that picked it up and ran with it.”
During the walk many students wore white ribbons to show their support for victims of domestic and sexual violence.
Along the route, McKittrick said, organizers set up displays illustrating statistics related to domestic and sexual violence against women in Monmouth County and around the world.
According to one statistic, Monmouth Country ranks second in the state when it comes to the use of sexual assault hotlines. Another figure estimates that one in three women in the world will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime.
At the point where the walk ended, a sign explained that for each step participants took, one woman would die as a result of domestic violence this year.
“We tried to put some statistics around so that while people were walking, whether they were in women’s shoes to actually feel what it’s like to be in a woman’s shoes or if it was people supporting the event, that as they passed by the signs, they’d be able to talk about it or just bring it up later in their conversation,” McKittrick said.
In addition to the White Ribbon and Walk a Mile campaigns, McKittrick said Monmouth University is very proactive when it comes to domestic abuse and sexual violence education.
“While it’s still a taboo subject, we are not afraid to talk about it,” McKittrick said. “We are a very open community. We are a very safe community, but we want people to be aware of what’s going on in our local and state communities.”
According to McKittrick, students who find themselves in a situation in which they have to deal with domestic or sexual violence have several options available.
“If they themselves a victim or survivor, they have the assistance and support of the residential life staff as well as the psychological counseling staff, as well as judicial affairs and Monmouth University police,” McKittrick explained.
McKittrick said he hopes to bring the Walk a Mile and White Ribbon campaigns to campus again next year.
“I’m really encouraged by it; we want to make it a yearly event,” he said. “We want to build on it and bring it back to campus … and see how we can improve on it and engage even more people and maybe the general community as well.”
Contact Daniel Howley at