Violence Against Women and Girls Happens in My Country

This blog also appeared here.

One of the myths that the WAGGGS 16 Days campaign has busted so far is the thought that ‘Violence against girls doesn’t happen in my country’. That sentiment is often applied to the UK, but it’s just not true.

Today Girlguiding UK, has launched their annual Girls’ Attitudes Survey which documents the views and opinions of girls and young women in the UK on a number of areas. This year’s report has built on their findings in previous years with even more startling statistics related to sexism and violence. The report, entitled ‘Equality for Girls’, found that sexual harassment is endemic across the country with 70% of girls aged 13+ reporting experiences starting at school. 75 per cent of girls aged between 11-21 feel that sexism is so widespread in the UK that it affects the majority of aspects of their life.

60 per cent of 11-21s have had comments about their appearance shouted at them at school, while 62 per cent have been shouted or whistled at in the street. 70 per cent of girls aged 13 and over report more intrusive forms of sexual harassment at school or college, including: sexual jokes or taunts (51 per cent), seeing images of girls or women that made them uncomfortable (39 per cent), unwanted sexual attention (28 per cent) and unwanted touching (28 per cent).

This research follows on from a separate report into relationship violence, ‘Care Vs Control’, that was launched a couple of months ago. You can download that report from http://girlsattitudes.girlguiding.org.uk/pdf/2025_Care_Versus_Control.pdf

All of this research points to the fact that violence against girls and young women is a very real problem in the UK. Whilst Girlguiding UK and WAGGGS have put programmes in place to build girls’ self-esteem and help them to realise what constitutes violence and where they can turn to for help, we also need to be looking at ways we can involve men and boys in the discussions in order to achieve the societal change.

You can find out more and read the full report at http://bit.ly/GirlsAttitudes and join the discussion today on Twitter with the tag #GirlsAttitudes.