On International Women’s Day Cecilia Eve reports on a new campaign to address the epidemic of gender based violence
Earlier this year, the Young European Movement (YEM) officially launched a new campaign, “Break the Silence / End the Violence“, calling for urgent action to combat male violence against women and girls (MVAWG), in partnership with European Parliament and European affairs newspaper Europinion. On January 23rd, over 100 politicians, policymakers, activists, academics and thought leaders gathered in Europe House, spanning representation across 60 different networks to support this initiative. Attendees heard from panelists including myself, Frances Fitzgerald, former MEP and international speaker on women’s rights who spearheaded the landmark Directive criminalising male violence against women and girls (MVAWG) which was ratified by all EU member states, and gender equality expert Sanna Lepola, Director General for Parliamentary Democracy at the European Parliament. We were also joined by UN Women Changemaker of the Year 2023 and founder of Male Allies UK Lee Chambers, with our moderator being ex-BBC newsreader Emma Nelson, current reporter for Monocle 24.
The Shadow Epidemic
At the beginning of the event, Emma asked attendees to “be brave” and stand up if they had ever been victims of MVAWG. The vast majority of the women in the room did, and those who didn’t approached me later to say that they would have stood up had they realised we were using a holistic definition, i.e. one including sexual assault, harrassment, cyberviolence, financial and coercive control, and, of course its worst form; femicide. This visual representation of the seriousness of the problem set the scene for the information collectively imparted by the panel.
In the UK, MVAWG has finally been termed a national emergency, a label which is welcome, but ultimately, a long overdue acknowledgement. The statistics are harrowing, and what is even more worrying is the utterly shocking lack of progress on this. One woman is killed in the UK every three days, (two daily in the EU), misogynistic cybercrime has risen 37% in the last three years, and the rate of femicide hasn’t tangibly declined since 2009. A report by the National Audit Office recently termed this a “rising epidemic”, and as editors of Europinion wrote, not only is this going to have a detrimental effect on female representation in politics, thereby creating a negative feedback loop, but this is only set to increase with the rising radicalisation of young men by influencers like Andrew Tate.
Making the (Positive) Case
When conceptualising this and notifying key stakeholders of our plans to take our campaign in this direction, despite the stark statistics, we at YEM were often met with one recurring question. This question only served to underline the need for this campaign. “What’s this got to do with the EU and young people?” For starters, gender based violence is an international issue, and one which as part of the EU, we were much better equipped to combat. Caoimhe Clements from the EU-UK Stronger Together Network reported on the launch and referenced the fact that Brexit has undermined protections for women in the UK, such as the loss of access to EU funding mechanisms including the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme, the European Arrest Warrant and data-sharing platforms such as the Schengen Information System, Europol and Eurojust. These platforms were essential for sharing real-time data about criminal activities, including sexual violence. Secondly, this is something that youth care about.
At the beginning of 2024, following a progress report event on gender equality in the UK and EU that we hosted at Europe House, we went to European Parliament in Brussels and worked with Citizen Z and the Intercultural Dialogue Platform, who polled young people across Europe and found that gender based violence was in the top three issues at the forefront of their concerns. Not only this, but gender equality is a cornerstone of the European project, so if we are to truly engage in a “reset” of relations between the UK and EU, it is imperative that we champion its values.
When building our campaign, we kept in mind the importance to strike a balance between “painting the picture”, which is indubitably bleak, and promoting the benefits of real action on the issue. Apart from the obvious and incalculable human advantages that ending gender based violence would bring, given that its impacts cost the EU €366bn and the UK £40bn annually, there would also be huge economic positives in a society free from MVAWG. By drawing out the element of hope that collective action on this could bring, we were able to gain buy-in from hundreds of key stakeholders we had identified.
Victim Blaming on a National Scale
One of the central elements that this campaign challenges is the cultural normalisation of MVAWG. Simultaneously, it underscores the need to bring men into the equation. An overwhelming amount of media coverage and societal rhetoric around MVAWG unilaterally directs the onus of responsibility onto women. For example, narratives such as advising women to take precautionary measures, such as carrying rape alarms, pepper spray, or anti-rohypnol nail polish, which only serve to further reinforce the dangerous idea that men’s violence must be “managed” by women. It must be remembered that male violence doesn’t just impact women in the events of sexual assault or harrassment. It is a pervasive and insidious presence in their everyday lives, and such narratives only serve to burden women even further. And each incident leaves indelible marks. Over 70% of all British women and 88% of those aged 18-24 have taken steps in their everyday lives to guard against harassment.
This violence isn’t just passively happening to women, it is actively and increasingly being chosen by men. As Gisèle Pelicot said in her rape trial testimony, “shame must change sides”. This is not to say that we must start uniformly shaming men, but that we should be looking at how to instill concepts of consent in men from a young age, and proactively involve them as an integral part of a prevention-based solution, rather than conducting damage control when suffering has already been inflicted on women.
“This event was truly captivating and a stark reminder of the responsibility we all share in tackling gender-based violence. As men, it’s vital that we don’t just acknowledge the issue but consider how we can be active allies. This isn’t just a women’s issue, it’s a societal one”. Tommy Monahan, Co-Director and Head of Finance and Administration, YEM Board
Ending the Culture of Silence
Another part of this solution is the need to break societal taboos surrounding gender-based violence. This relates to both interpersonal and wider discussion of its prevalence. Without open dialogue, it is nigh impossible for this issue to ascend the political agenda and be treated with the urgency it deserves. The culture of shame and silence, as well as low trust in the police, given a system that tends to re-traumatise victims and yields almost negligible conviction rates, is ultimately resulting in a lack of justice being served. Five in six women (83%) who are raped do not report it, which means that the scale of the problem is being obscured.
From Idea to Implementation
Recognition of issues is the first step towards their successful resolution. In order to capture the scale of this epidemic and address it with the comprehensiveness required, we advocate that VAWG legislation be updated by making misogyny a hate crime and listed as an aggravating factor in sentencing. This was initially successful trialled, but subsequently dropped by the Conservative government, citing difficulty in implementation. However, the survival of women deserves far more than this. We elect governments to lead our countries, and part of that leadership involves the safeguarding of our human rights, which are being violated left, right and centre, more often than not with impunity. What we cannot record, we cannot redress. Making misogyny a hate crime would necessitate the provision of vital data which can inform a prevention rather than consequence mitigation-based approach, as well as lending visibility to the intersectional experiences of women from minoritised communities. Incidentally, this is already supported by 20 leading women’s rights organisations including Women’s Aid and the Fawcett Society. In fact, multiple MPs and four major political parties actually committed to making misogyny a hate crime in 2023.
“A world that asks survivors to stay quiet is a world that chooses the comfort of the oppressors over the safety of the victims” Marta Haba, YEM member and launch attendee, pictured above
What’s Next?
If men were being killed in their dozens by women every year, one would not be remiss for predicting that far more would be happening to address the situation, and much faster. Misogyny isn’t just hatred, it’s a pattern of persecution with an escalatory nature and women cannot continue to be the collateral damage of this legislative blind spot. Making misogyny a hate crime would help Labour keep its ambitious, but welcome commitment to halve MVAWG in a decade.
Since we began this campaign in earnest, at least eight women have been killed by men in Northern Ireland, meaning that we have had to continuously update our campaign copy to reflect this. And in 2024, at least 80 women were killed by men in the UK. If that doesn’t demonstrate the urgency of the situation, it begs the question; what does?
YEM is currently drafting an open letter to the government for organisations to sign calling for hate crime legislation to be updated and is planning an event analysing the results of their poll on the issue. YEM have also been selected to conduct a workshop on this topic at the European Youth Event 2025 and are working on a wider intersectional equality campaign as the new Co-Chairs of the EU-UK Stronger Together Network of 125 European youth organisations, together with the British Youth Council. Find out more about YEM’s work here.