It has always been a men’s movement to eliminate misogyny, achieve gender equality, and prevent all forms of gender-based violence.

The original idea was to engage men and boys, using peer pressure in a positive way to improve behaviour.

The movement was a response to a misogynist tragedy in Montreal in 1989. Canada's White Ribbon executive director Humberto Carolo said in our interview, “The founders felt that men needed to take greater responsibility and play an increased role in ending violence against women.”

The original idea for White Ribbon is that it represents “a man’s pledge to never commit, condone or remain silent about all forms of violence against women.”

What started as a grass roots movement now spans 60 countries.

This year Australia has moved the date forward to November 23, away from the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on November 25.

In a September statement, White Ribbon Australia said the reason for separating Australia’s campaign date from the UN’s was “to have maximum impact from the work we are all doing to end men’s violence against women and children.”

There are many ways that funds are raised for White Ribbon, but those are secondary to the movement's primary purpose.

The statistics show that we are currently losing more women to domestic violence than we are soldiers in conflict, but gender-based violence goes far beyond the act of murder, and abuse isn't always physical.

The underlying premise is that it all starts with male attitudes towards women (and towards themselves), and other men not tolerating those negative attitudes among their peer groups or among the boys in their lives.

White Ribbon Australia has a fact sheet with the heading of “Challenging your friends’ behaviour," with suggestions of what you can say in some situations where a peer has expressed inappropriate or abusive behaviour.

White Ribbon Australia's fact sheet on “What men can do,” opens with the statement “To end men’s violence against women, we need to change attitudes and behaviour – this will take time.”

To learn more, it also wants you to “Ask a woman who trusts you about violence and abuse and how it has affected her life. If she feels comfortable to talk, just listen and learn from her experiences. Women who have survived or are surviving violence and abuse will provide valuable and experiential insights”.

Further down, their summary of why some men are violent says “Violent and abusive behaviours are learnt. For [those men and boys], violence is a way of expressing their masculinity. It is intentional behaviour to gain power and control.”

One of the things Mr Carolo pointed out was the need for them to be "promoting healthy masculinities".

On that subject, White Ribbon Australia also has a fact sheet challenging what it means to be a real man.

That fact sheet says “Sometimes men feel pressure to be dominant and in control. Some people believe men must be strong and powerful. These characteristics are called ‘gender norms’.”

To solve this, “Examining social definitions of manhood will help remove the pressure on men to meet expectations that are impossible to satisfy or attain. These expectations of men create the conditions for violence, abuse and control of women to occur."