Protesters gathered on the corner of Barkly Street in Brunswick at 7pm tonight.

"Women grow up with a different set of rules," she said.

"We're taught to keep a key between our fingers in case we're attacked and check the back seat of our car. These are things that guys just aren't made to do.

"We're pissed off and annoyed that women are being blamed when they're the victim of an assault."

Former independent member for Wills, Phil Cleary, attended the rally - just two kilometres from where his sister Vicki was stabbed to death by her ex-boyfriend in 1987.

Mr Cleary told The Age: "We have an institutionalised culture of prejudice towards women. This is not about sexism, it's about misogyny.

"We still have cases of killer men being found not guilty of murder because 'she provoked him' is still a defence."

In the article, Clementine Ford said "... some folk are still relishing the opportunity to remind women that if they don't want anything bad to happen to them, they should be more careful about drinking/staying out late/talking to strangers who aren't their husbands/wearing suggestive clothing/walking while female/having a vagina in the first place".

Tonight, Ms Ford told the crowd, "When we remind women that its 'their responsibility' to protect themselves ... we refuse to see the problem [and] we perpetuate the idea that women are less equal".

Sara Brocklesby read out the results of a survey on community attitudes towards sexual violence, including that 60 per cent believed "women are partly responsible for [their rape]," prompting the crowd to boo.

Durkhanai Ayubi, a senior policy analyst for the federal government, told the protesters, "Why is it that a woman who is a victim of rape finds it so hard to speak out? ... She remains silent to avoid the stigma."

Mitch Cherry, 25, was among 2000 or so men who marched.

"The simple fact is that women should wear, do and say what they like without the fear of violence," he said.

Ms Meagher, 29, who moved with her husband from Ireland to Melbourne three years ago, was allegedly abducted while walking home alone from a bar in Sydney Road early on September 22.

Her body was found in Gisborne South one week later.

Anu Algama, a Brunswick resident, said she was deeply affected by the death.

"Jill simply went out for some drinks with her colleagues," she said. "In this day and age, to suggest anyone shouldn't do that is just ludicrous."

About 7.45pm, the attendees - a diverse gathering of men, women and children - began walking up Sydney Road towards Victoria Street.

Some carried banners that read, "A Woman's Place Is Everywhere" and "Women, Girls and Boys Unite to Reclaim the Night" as Lesley Gore's 1960s anthem You Don't Own Me blared from a loudspeaker.

The first Reclaim the Night march was held in Belgium in 1976. They have been held around Australia since 1978.

"I doubt there's been one as big as this for a while," said a woman who asked not to be named. "What happened to Jill hasn't made us scared, it's made us angry."

theage.com.au