field, and you will find the utterly remarkable
Jane Randel. As VP of Corporate Communi-
cations, Randel manages both internal and
external communications, oversees all phil-
anthropic programs, and has been the driving
force behind the company's award-winning
cause marketing program aimed at raising
awareness about and ultimately preventing
violence against women. She is also a wife
and a mother to three boys.
complex, ugly issue of intimate partner
violence that much more remarkable. Since
the mid-90s, she has been at the forefront
of Liz Claiborne Inc.'s pioneering initiatives,
including Love is Not Abuse, Love is Respect
(the nation's first teen dating abuse hotline),
and MADE (Moms and Dads for Education
to Stop Teen Dating Abuse). And this list
doesn't begin to cover her commitments to
an impressive roster of organizations,
including Joyful Heart.
reveals both her passion for knowledge about
prevention, education and healing survivors'
wounds.
leaning forward in her chair. "It's not a simple
fix. This issue is complicated--you can't just
go get a blood test or take away someone's
keys. We need to change the social norms.
We need to change the way our society views
abuse."
researched which issues were important to its
customers, and found that domestic violence
out to do something about it.
to make it safe to talk about. It was an aware-
ness campaign," Randel explains. "And the
workplace is an ideal venue to reach out to
people. It's often the one place where victims
feel safe. And often it will provide the means
they would need to leave the relationship."
over the last twenty years, she feels that there
is still much work to be done, especially with
regard to teen dating abuse. The issue tragi-
cally exploded into the nation's consciousness
earlier this year when pictures surfaced of
recording artist Rihanna's bruised and swollen
face, the result of battering by her boyfriend,
Chris Brown.
deeply troubles Randel. "They are
so quick to condemn her and de-
fend him. And it's girls doing this"
she says, referring to a study by the
Boston Public Health Commission
that revealed 46 percent of teens placing the
blame for the assault on Rihanna. "There are
obviously still powerful public misconcep-
tions about this issue. People still ask `Why
does she stay with him?' The question that
everyone should be asking is `Why did he
beat her?'"
"People misunderstand," she explains. "They
don't see the prelude to the violent eruption,
they only see the aftermath. They don't see
the way abusers craft the situation. How do
you reach a teen and make her understand
that receiving 30, 40, 50 text messages an
healthy? Messages saying things like `What
are you doing?' or `Who are you with?' or
`Where are you?', not `How are you?'--
because the teens we surveyed made this
distinction--how do you make them see
that this isn't about love?"
didn't come screaming to Rhianna's defense,
Randel falls silent for a moment. She chooses
her words carefully: "I'm not sure they're given
permission to do that yet. In self-defense they
teach that one of the most effective defenses
women have against a potential attacker is to
yell. But are we--are girls--taught to do that?
We're still taught to be quiet."
"I don't know if we'll ever be able to completely
eradicate this kind of violence, but can't we
become a society that has no tolerance for
it? Can't we become a culture that places the
blame squarely on the shoulders of the per-
son perpetrating the violence, not the person
who has to withstand it? We need to move
toward becoming a society that is intolerant
of abuse. That's my goal."
doing, check out: LoveisNotAbuse.com,
LoveisRespect.org or look for MADE on
Facebook.