Josie Ashton has devoted her life’s work to raising awareness about an issue relating to someone she never met. Powered by the tragic story of Gladys Ricart, a bride killed by an ex-boyfriend on her wedding day, she combats domestic violence by providing support to victims.

The media speculated that Gladys had been with her ex-boyfriend the night before her wedding and therefore provoked her own victimization. “They were showing images of a beautiful bride full of blood. I was so angered by how Gladys was being judged. The stigma is that people who are abused choose not to break ties with their abuser, and that they are equally as responsible for it. I knew at that moment that I had to give society something as radical as the murder itself—to shock them into action and explain what domestic violence really is.” She decided to raise awareness by showing people, rather than telling them, Gladys’s story.

Josie resigned from her position at the Miami Dade County State Attorney’s office to take a risk, with no back-up plan. Fueled by passion, she trekked 1300 miles in a wedding gown through towns all over the east coast. “My intention was to bring Gladys’s murder back to life and make it real for people.” By the end of the trip she had visited 22 cities, stayed in 14 women’s shelters, and talked with hundreds of people.

The Bride’s March rose out of her efforts. Now crowds of women gather in wedding gowns and walk long distances to reinforce that domestic violence affects everyone. Marie Claire magazine coordinated the first March with Josie’s help in front of the Capitol in Washington D.C. a year after her original journey, and since then they’ve been hosted in Milwaukee, New York City, Miami and Mexico. “My dream is to take it all over the country, annually.”

Josie’s fervor for rectifying wrongs stems from having suffered physical abuse from a boyfriend during her teenage years. Her co-workers were there for her, she says. “They collected money to help remove me from the situation and I moved in with one of them. They were my heroes and they instilled in me the desire to create change.”

In between coordinating the Marches, Josie works as a victim advocate. She believes there’s a lot more work to be done. “The resources and laws are in place, but victims are still perceived as weak. Abuse victims are thought of as uneducated, self-destructive, and of low socioeconomic status. But domestic violence touches everyone. We need to be able to trust society not to judge us, but to empower and help us move on.”



If you'd like to ask Josie a question, send it to Stephanie@womenworking.com, and we'll see if we can get you an answer.
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