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Is This The Most Dangerous Time To Be A Woman In The UK?

Photo credit: Ana Davila - Getty Images
Photo credit: Ana Davila - Getty Images

From ELLE

In 2020, women are supposed to be equal.

It's what Time’s Up and #MeToo demand, it’s what the government’s mandatory gender pay gap reporting pushes businesses to acknowledge, it's why we've had two female Prime Ministers and it's why December saw the highest number of women ever to be elected to Parliament in the UK.

Yet, in just one week in September 2019, it was revealed that rape convictions in England and Wales are at their lowest levels since records began and that the number of women in the UK murdered by their domestic partner rose to a five year high. This week, the news was even more wretched. The number of female homicide victims has reached its highest level since 2006.

Our position of equality crumbles in the face of these statistics. For despite the illusion that women can 'have it all', 'lean in', be future leaders and determine our own destiny, the numbers prove that striving for these things is increasingly likely to come at the cost of our bodies, or worse, our lives. And you can't be Prime Minister if you've been murdered at the hands of your spouse.

A torrid fusion of misogyny in the mainstream and cuts to frontline, preventative and support services have allowed this to happen, but let's investigate why.

Misogyny is killing women

Just this week, new figures released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) found that the number of female homicide victims in England and Wales are at their highest in 14 years. Almost half of the 241 victims were killed in a ‘domestic homicide’ with the suspect named as a partner or ex-partner in 38% of cases, an annual increase of a third.

Dr Jane Monckton-Smith is a criminology professor from the University of Gloucestershire, who specialises in female homicide. She predicted this increase in women's deaths resultant from male violence, around the same time she noticed a societal re-validation of misogyny.

‘There is now an empowerment of people to be racist and sexist,' she tells us. 'So many people now feel entitled to these extreme opinions and that always plays to the base level of the domestic situation.'

Photo credit: Hearst Owned
Photo credit: Hearst Owned

In other words, misogynists are currently being 'empowered and encouraged.’

A shift in global politics plays into this. In 2016, a presidential candidate who bragged about ‘grabbing women by the p*ssy’ was elected, his views ascended to the highest platform. As too did his actions - last year, the administration changed the definition of domestic abuse to exclude anything other than physical abuse.

In the UK, a man whose previous comments include: ‘Voting Tory will cause your wife to have bigger breasts’, ‘Pat her on the bottom and send her on her way' and women go to university 'to find men to marry' was elected the UK's Prime Minister.

The fact that men with a back catalogue of sexism have been elected as our leaders gives validation to other misogynists in the countries they influence.

But it’s not just politics that's to blame. Social media echo-chambers allow men to sermonise their misogyny unchecked, viewed and supported by a community that only agrees. The fact that rates of violence against women have risen in an age of social media, is likely not a coincidence.

‘Before [men with misogynistic views] might have felt embarrassed; now they feel legitimised,’ Dr Monckton-Smith explains. ‘They find groups of people who agree with them who they would never come across in their everyday lives. When you are part of a community you are much more empowered.

‘If you feel isolated in your views, you’re probably going to hide them. I’ve interviewed killers in prison and one of the things that bound them together was that they all expected when they killed their partners that there would be some sort of solidarity from society. They thought other men would understand…'

Surprisingly, women's safety seems to have gotten worse in tandem with the rise of movements seeking to protect it. The #MeToo movement has spread the message of our sexual rights, Time's Up and International Women’s Day initiatives have pushed for financial parity and some of the world's most famous celebrities have adopted the 'feminist' cause.

There are some that would cite the 'backlash hypothesis' here, from feminist theory. Namely, that a sudden rise in women’s equality is sometimes accompanied by a kickback.

‘As women perceptibly gain more rights, there is a backlash, which results in violence against them,’ says Dr Monckton-Smith. ‘Some people don’t believe [in equal rights]. Or they feel as though there is a more general attack on men, so they retaliate, to put women "back in their place."'

BAME and LGBTQ+ Women Face An Added Risk

The rise in mainstream sexism has been coupled with an increase in racist, xenophobic and homophobic rhetoric. This intersection means women of colour and women in the LGBTQ+ community face an increased risk.

Photo credit: Getty Images
Photo credit: Getty Images

In October, government figures showed the number of hate crimes reported to the police had more than doubled in five years, with racially-based hate crimes accounting for three-quarters and increasing 11% in the last year alone.

Though there were suggestions that the increase could be attributed to improvements in reporting, there were significant spikes following events in the news like Brexit and the terrorist attacks committed in the UK in 2017.

In January, London Mayor Sadiq Khan voiced concern that hate crimes will only increase once the UK officially leaves the EU.

Photo credit: Hearst Owned
Photo credit: Hearst Owned

Trans hate crimes have also increased by 37% in a year to 2,333 recorded instances by police. Crimes against people based on their sexuality are up 25% compared to the previous year.

Last year, there was outrage on social media when a picture of two bloodied women, in a relationship with each other, were assaulted on a London bus in a homophobic attack. In December, three teenage boys were convicted.

Much of the response to the headlines was shock that such a violent hate crime happened in London, seemingly one of the most diverse and cosmopolitan cities in the world.

Journalist Sophie Wilkinson, however, was 'shocked, but not surprised' by the story, having encountered similar experiences of male aggression towards herself and her girlfriend.

'That sort of stuff happens so much on so many different levels,' Wilkinson tells ELLE UK. 'In the majority of cases, it's young guys who feel an entitlement to women in some way and if a woman doesn't bend to their will then there's a problem.'

Wilkinson adds that she thinks a lot of the shock at the couple in question came down to the appearance, in that they didn't look stereotypically queer and, as she puts it, had 'followed the rules' of how a woman is supposed to dress and act.

Photo credit: Getty Images
Photo credit: Getty Images

'My girlfriend is very feminine in her appearance,' she explains. 'So my presence is the thing that outs her. We’ve had situations where men have tried to make sexual advances, not only because they’re attracted to her, but also because they see it as a challenge that I’ve taken her away from where she should traditionally be, which is on the arm of a man, in their eyes.'

As festering misogyny leads to a heightened potential for violence against women, LGBTQ+ women potentially face double the threat: from those that object both to their gender and their sexuality.

The safety of women has not been made an economic priority

If increased misogyny is perpetuating the behaviour of abusers to the point where they believe their actions are valid, the safety net for the women in danger is failing them too.

In 2018, The Guardian reported that cuts to council funding for women's refuges amounted to nearly £7 million since 2010 across England, Wales and Scotland. Research by Women’s Aid in 2018 found that 60% of referrals to refuges were turned away.

The charity has since called on the government to provide sustainable funding for specialist domestic abuse services in every community across England.

'Many service providers are currently running an area of work with no dedicated funding whatsoever and this is clearly unacceptable given the nature of these crucial, life-saving services,' says Adina Claire, acting Chief Executive.

It's not just refuges and emergency accommodation for victims. Government cuts to a range of industries, areas and support services have left women with nowhere to turn.

When the most recent statistics about female homicide were released, the young persons housing charity Crisis warned of the lack of accommodation support available for women fleeing domestic abuse.

‘Currently, women who leave their abuser have no guarantee of safe and settled housing. This can mean women have little option but to return to the very place where they were at risk, often ending in fatal consequences,’ Hannah Gousy, the charity’s head of policy and campaigns, says in a statement.

Under the Conservative government’s austerity policies, the number of police officers were cut by more than 20,000 from 2010 to 2019, leaving police officer numbers at their lowest level since the 1980s (this has recently been remedied by the government, who have pledged to recruit 20,000 officers to put the number back on par).

Photo credit: Hearst Owned
Photo credit: Hearst Owned

Overworked and under-resourced police forces – who have to manage a vast breadth of crimes and untenable caseloads – does not fill anyone with confidence about the protection of female victims at risk of violence. In 2019, research by the charity Action Aid found that 60% of British women said they, or a woman they know, found the experience of reporting male violence to the police 'traumatic.'

Nicole Westmarland, a professor of criminology at Durham university, has spent time with domestic violence units at police forces and noticed the challenges.

‘You can see how difficult it is for them to provide a good service to the domestic abuse victims because of the level of work they’ve got, the police are trying to pick up all of this and not miss anything and it’s tough.’

The lack of resources in our policing system, perhaps combined with ingrained misogyny and a lack of female representation in the judicial system (70% of police officers in the UK identify as male, and only 32% of judges in courts are women) could also explain the low rape convictions figures.

In real terms, the number of men convicted in court for raping women is the lowest its been for ten years. According to official figures from the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service), year on year, there's been a decrease of 26.9% from 2,635 in 2017-18 to 1,925 in 2018-19.

Photo credit: Hearst Owned
Photo credit: Hearst Owned

When the rates were first reported, women's groups said they were akin to rape being 'decriminalised'.

We know that rape claims made to the police have not decreased (the number of alleged rapes reported to the police has more than doubled since 2013-14, from 20,751 to 58,657 in 2018-19) so it's not that women are being raped less, just fewer of those accused are being found guilty.

In their annual Violence Against Women and Girls report, the CPS even acknowledged: 'The growing gap between the number of rapes recorded by the police and the number of cases going to court is a cause of concern for us all in the criminal justice system.'

Action Aid suggest one in five women in the UK and around the world have either been involved in a court case relating to male violence or know a woman who has. Of these, nearly a third said going to court was a negative experience.

Jean McLean, the deputy director of media, campaigns and public engagement at the charity, tells us: 'Time and time again, survivors who are brave enough to speak out do not get justice. Seemingly reputable institutions let women and girls down. The police don’t prioritise their cases and the courts make them feel like they are the ones on trial.'

The charity also points out that it's women and girls in poverty who are more at risk.

[pullquote]'Many are left dealing with the emotional and physical impacts of the abuse on their own'[/pullquote]

'When justice systems aren't properly equipped, survivors struggle to access legal aid or get the other forms of support they are entitled to. Many are left dealing with the emotional and physical impacts of the abuse on their own and are vulnerable to even more violence.'

Last year, Dr Monckton-Smith's research identified an eight-stage pattern in the male behaviour that precedes female homicide, suggesting cases are rarely spontaneous. Her research indicates that if police officers are trained with noticing the initial stages of domestic abuse, deaths can be prevented.

Women's Aid have supported this, calling for police officers to be 'trained in the dynamics of domestic abuse and coercive control, to enable them to intervene early to protect vulnerable women and children'. The introduction of coercive control into criminal law earlier this year provides some hope for this.

A generational shift could also help relieve the dangers women still face, with Westmarland stressing the need for gender equality and preventative violence against women education in schools to enact substantial, lasting change.

‘We want to create change but we’re not putting the things in place on a societal level that could really start to create that shift. We’ve unfortunately got a long way to go,’ she says.

Leaders and governments also need to be held to account, both for the contributions their cuts to frontline services have made to a lapse in safety for victims and for their incitement of mainstream misogyny through their words, actions and policies.

'You can do all the gender equality lessons you like but if you’ve got somebody in a position of power saying something different, you’re wasting your time,' says Dr Monckton-Smith. ‘This needs to come from the very top, from our leaders, they should be setting an example.'

For the rest of us, there is something to be said for people power. If this picture looks bleak, remember that history has shown us real change can come from people fighting the good fight for equality even in the face of danger.

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