Violence Against Women
In the UK, nearly 1 in 4 women experiences sexual assault and nearly 1 in 3 women experiences domestic violence (1). In total, over 3 million women experience these and other forms of male violence every year (2). The women's sector has long campaigned for an integrated strategy to end this violence. In 2009, this culminated with the Government, opposition and Mayor proposing strategies to tackle violence against women and girls:
April 2009: The Mayor of London Boris Johnson launches ‘The way forward: a call for action to end violence against women’ – setting out a proposed programme of action.
March 2009: The Home Office publishes ‘Together we can end violence against women’ consultation paper on an integrated strategy.
Feb 2010: The Home Office publishes its 'Sexualisation of Young People Review'
December 2008: The Conservative Party publishes ‘Ending Violence Against Women’ (pdf) strategy paper for an integrated strategy.
Putting Sexualisation on the Agenda
We have been lobbying hard to make sure all these strategies include measures to take firm action to tackle the sexualisation of women and girls in the media and popular culture. The table below shows current policy proposals on this issue:
|
Policy Proposal
|
Addresses sexualisation of women and girls |
Addresses mainstreaming of the sex industry |
|
Mayor of London: “The way forward: a call for action to end violence against women”
|
No
|
Yes: calls for tougher action on lap dancing clubs and on cutting demand for prostitution
|
|
Home Office: “Together we can end violence against women”
|
Yes: consultation includes a “fact-finding review into the increasing ‘sexualisation’ of teenage girls” and invites responses to the question “Is there a link between sexualised images, perceptions and actual violence?”
|
No: the consultation only details other policy work undertaken to tackle trafficking
|
|
Conservative Party: “Ending Violence Against Women”
|
Yes: “we must be honest about the growing sexualisation of
our society, and be sensitive to the way in which women are portrayed in the media”. However no clarification of what this would entail.
|
Yes: although this is limited to tackling trafficking: “We will also look at targeting potential ‘consumers’ and ‘employers’ through public campaigns in order to highlight the suffering caused by forced labour and prostitution”.
|
(1) Home Office Violence Against Women statistics: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/crime/violence-against-women-girls/
(2) Figures according to the End Violence Against Women Cammpaign - a coalition of UK organisations and individuals, representing over 7 million women: http://www.endviolenceagainstwomen.org.uk/
|
