UK minister vows to send misogyny ‘back to the dark ages’
Bridget Phillipson will chair a national taskforce of experts, ministers and local leaders, with its first meeting focusing on young people.
A new national taskforce will aim to send misogynistic attitudes “back to the dark ages where they belong”, the minister for women and equalities has said.
Bridget Phillipson will chair the National Taskforce for Tackling Misogyny, which brings together experts, ministers and local leaders.
Its first meeting will focus on young people, before it goes on to look at workplaces, digital spaces and social cohesion.
Members will include representatives from women’s organisations and academia, and the taskforce will complement existing work to halve violence against women and girls, the government said. It will also ask how it could “go further to tackle harmful attitudes wherever they emerge, including online, in workplaces, and in communities”.
Nearly one million adults experience sexual assault, 1.4 million face stalking, and nearly four million endure domestic abuse in a single year, the government said.
“Before I entered politics, I ran a refuge for women fleeing domestic abuse,” Phillipson said.
“I’ve seen first-hand the devastating impact on women and girls when harmful attitudes are tolerated and left unchallenged.”
“No woman should have to make her world smaller or curb her ambitions out of fear – and making that a reality is everyone’s business,” Phillipson said.
The taskforce is described as the “latest step” by the government to tackle violence against women and girls, using “the full power of the state” to tackle these crimes.
The Prime Minister has also announced that all police forces in England and Wales will have specialist rape and sexual offence teams in place by December 2027, a year and a half ahead of the original deadline.
The government is also providing a £16m package to educate pupils on healthy relationships and train staff to tackle misogyny, alongside a further £10m fund for intervention programmes for children “actively using harm”.
Gary Barker, founder and chief executive of Equimundo, which is part of the taskforce, said the organisation’s research showed misogynistic attitudes were increasing, “but also that they can change when men and boys are engaged as true allies in that process”.
Deniz Uğur, deputy director at the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said the coalition was pleased to see the taskforce focus on “tackling the root causes of violence against women and girls”.
