AN IMPORTANT MPORTANT STEP STEP.... . . BUT THERE’S MUCH MORE TO DO

RECORDING misogyny as a hate crime won’t criminalise wolfwhistling, or send men to jail for complimenting women, no matter how much misinformation you might have seen online. But it is an important signal that abuse against women, motivated by misogyny, will be taken seriously.

It will allow police to see patterns for the first time: to recognise areas and situations in which the abuse of women is common. This will help to tackle the problem. And it will send the message to survivors that they can come forward and should be taken seriously.

But it won’t be enough to solve the problem alone. In the past week, we have seen women’s experiences dismissed, belittled and disbelieved as #notAllMen trends online. We’ve seen commentators accuse women of ‘ hysterical’ overreaction and a dead woman blamed by many for her own death because she dared to walk home alone.

I wrote Men Who Hate Women, my book exploring how misogyny affects us all, because we will never tackle the problem of male violence until we are able to acknowledge the uncomfortable truth that that is what it is.

not ‘ violence against women’. Male violence. And male violence is also suffered by other men. So, for all of our sakes, we need to confront it. We need to educate boys about sexual consent, not girls about not wearing short skirts.

We must address institutional sexism and racism in a justice system where just 1.5 per cent of reported rape cases result in a charge or summons. This is an important first step. But there is so much further to go.

▪ Men Who Hate Women by Laura Bates, Simon & Schuster, £9.99.