Violence against women reaches ‘epidemic levels’ during Covid pandemic
POLITICIANS and campaigners have warned that domestic violence against women and girls has remained at “epidemic levels” during the global coronavirus crisis.
As the world marks the latest International Women’s Day (IWD) today, the people of Wales have been challenged to call out persisting gender bias and inequality, at a time when women’s advancement in society has been “set back” by the coronavirus pandemic.
Marking IWD, the Welsh Government’s Deputy Minister and Chief Whip, Jane Hutt, said: “This year’s theme is Choose to Challenge. Stark evidence exists to show that women are still being treated unfairly, but from challenge comes change.
“This week is also No More Week, an opportunity to raise awareness of violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence, and to inspire change which will help create a culture of safety, equality, and respect in our communities.
“As individuals, we’re responsible for our own thoughts and actions. Today, I’m calling on Wales to choose to respect women’s rights, choose to change our behaviour, and choose to recognise and challenge abusive and discriminatory behaviour in others. We all have a part to play in making equality a reality.
“Evidence shows that being shut behind closed doors with abusers has increased the risk to victims and survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence.
“The impact of the virus has not fallen equally, and we must make sure that the clock is not rolled back on the progress we’ve made to support women and girls in
Wales.”
Gwendolyn Sterk, head of public affairs and communications at Welsh Women’s Aid, said: “An incredible sense of community has been felt during the Covid-19 pandemic. Communities have come together in an attempt to eradicate the virus and to support each other.
“However at Welsh Women’s Aid we know that it has also been a time of increased need for support for survivors of violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence.
“The community response and social solidarity Covid-19 has inspired is vital in tackling violence against women.
“Much like social distancing, this won’t be effective unless all of us commit to it. The pandemic has starkly highlighted the unavoidable truth that violence against women and girls is everyone’s business. “This International Women’s Day we encourage everyone to come together to promote gender equality and to work together to prevent violence and abuse of women and girls, which remains at epidemic levels.” Meanwhile, Labour MP Jess Phillips has warned that women’s advancement in society has been “set back” by the coronavirus pandemic, and will likely lead to more domestic abuse in the future.
The shadow minister for domestic violence said the economic independence, ability to work and career progress of women has been badly hit by the crisis.
She warned that the greater imbalance between men and women as a result would lead to “more domestic abuse in the future, not less”.
She said: “I think the pandemic has set women back in lots and lots of different areas and the level of risk will no doubt have massively increased during the lockdown, as opposed to the actual pandemic itself.
“The lockdown will have massively increased people’s risk register at the same time as decreasing their opportunities for escape.
“But not even escape – escape is too big a term – their opportunities to be in front of somebody else, whether that is someone in the shop or a teacher in their kids’ class, or their social worker, their staff, their colleagues.
“We just have eliminated touch points that keep people safe and women’s risk assessments at home are based on those touch points and when they are removed the risk will have skyrocketed.”
She said the pandemic will not have caused more domestic abuse and made people “batter their wives” – but rather that the “availability to abuse and the level of abuse that they could commit will have massively increased”.
“The single thing that I think has set women back during the pandemic is actually going to be borne out – and it is the single thing that means that women are less likely or less able to escape and more likely to become victims of domestic abuse in the future – and that is their economic independence.
“Women’s economic independence, women’s ability to work, women’s ability to advance in their careers has definitely been put back by the pandemic.
“Women’s jobs are the first to go and they’ll be the last to come back, and we see over and over again all sorts of harrowing statistics about parents, mothers especially, being 10 times more likely to have lost their job or to be due to lose their job in the next few months.
“And the reason that victims of domestic abuse exist is because of the balances in our society between men and women, and so it is no small thing, but I imagine there will be more domestic abuse in the future, not less...
“(It’s) because women’s advancement in society has been set back by the pandemic and by the fact that there has been nothing targeted to appease that.”
She called for an employment scheme for women, akin to those for young people, to be introduced to deal with the jobs lost in hospitality and retail and other industries.
“When male politicians who are fathers stand on platforms and thank mothers for basically taking an economic nose dive – I don’t want your thanks, I want your governance,” she said.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that programmes tackling domestic violence in England and Wales will receive an extra £19m in his Budget on Wednesday.
But Ms Phillips said it was “very difficult to be grateful sometimes for the things that the Government do on domestic abuse, because they broke them in the first place”.
“When they give you back a vase that they’ve put back together with tape, and they expect you to act grateful and dutiful for the broken vase that you have been given back when you gave them a vase that wasn’t broken,” she explained.
Figures released by the Office for National Statistics last month suggested domestic abuse-related offences recorded by police forces in England and Wales rose by 10% in a year, despite overall crime falling in the pandemic.
Some 842,813 domestic abuserelated offences were recorded by police forces in England and Wales in the year ending September 2020 - up from 769,611 the previous year.
If you or someone you know is affected by domestic abuse visit the Live Fear Free website or call the helpline on 0808 80 10 800.
The lockdown will have massively increased people’s risk register at the same time as decreasing their opportunities for escape
Labour MP Jess Phillips