Committee Chair responds to Government's Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy

• Sessions on: Changing cultures underpinning male violence against women
• Women and Equalities Committee

In April 2021, the committee held an evidence session exploring changing cultures underpinning male violence against women.

Chair's comment

“The public is demanding urgent action to ensure that all women and girls are free from sexual assault and harassment at work, on the street or in school, and are safe from domestic abuse at home.

“The [Violence Against Women and Girls] Strategy is the Government’s flagship policy for delivering on these demands, and will allow the Government to harness the resources of all its departments to tackle this deeply entrenched social harm. I welcome the Government’s aim of joining the dots between different forms of abuse that women and girls experience, including those with insecure immigration status and from ethnic minority backgrounds.

“The Government told my committee that the new strategy will focus on preventing violence and abuse in the first instance and there are significant developments in the Strategy, including more focus on perpetrators. However, the Government will not be able to deliver on a world free from violence against women and girls without specialist work in schools, workplaces, the media and communities on the harmful gender norms and stereotypes which underpin this violence. Just as we have spent decades of investment on health prevention and road safety, so we need a similar approach to male violence against women and girls.”

Further information

• About Parliament: Select committees
• Visiting Parliament: Watch committees

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