As media reports, a man attacks a woman every three days in the UK. One of each candy experiences some form of harassment, violence, or sexual assault. Millions of women are victims of sexist violence every year, according to the first report on this subject published by the Consejo Nacional de Jefes de Policía in July last year. In a country that continues to approach this issue with extreme modesty and resignation, and that continues to officially label gender-based violence as “domestic violence”, this year alone it has recorded around 816,000 police investigations focused on this structural problem in societies around the world, according to the National Statistics Office.
The Labor Party promised in its election program to reduce the figures of this violence by the end of the decade. Last July, the government announced the educational component of a strategy which intends to extend to town halls, courts and social centers. With these new measures, people over the age of 11 could be required to take classes focused on understanding the difference between pornography and those who have easy access to their cell phones and relationships.
“Every priest should be able to trust that their daughter is safe at school, in her access to networks and in her relationships. Very often, toxic ideas take root very quickly without any question,” declared the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, to explain the battery of measures announced. “We want to support teachers so that they can shine a light on this misogyny and be able to intervene at the first warning signs, before the damage occurs,” he said.
The new educational plan aims to train teachers so that they can detect these early symptoms and prevent the radicalization of minors. One in five teenagers aged 13 to 15 have a positive opinion of Andrew Tate, the ultra-powerful boxer who spent years amassing millions of followers on social media with his sexist, homophobic and violent comments and endorsements, according to a recent company survey. YouGov.
British society has been agitated this year by the debate on toxic masculinity which increasingly extends to the classroom, following the success of the mini-series. Adolescenceon the Netflix platform.
The new measures aim to teach teenagers what consent is, that is, the danger of sharing intimate images via mobile phones, where positive role models should be established, and how to dismantle false myths about women, sex or relationships.
With a telephone line and online support, for minors who suffer this type of aggression, the aforementioned courses will be launched for students with a more aggressive character.
The new educational effort also wants to explain to minors what co-action consists of, how to avoid the arrest of their companions and how to identify a harmful situation. All this aims to strengthen a signature that will be mandatory from September 2026 on all schools, sex education and relationships, which will include issues such as the identification of images or false videos generated by artificial intelligence, like those now circulating on the networks.
Global strategy against gender-based violence
Starmer’s government has proposed ending a very politically delicate year, with popular popularity and even internal rumors about replacing the leader, with the impetus of an election promise strongly demanded by its female electorate. Son of ministers known to be tough and decisive, Jess Phillips, secretary of state for violence against women and girls; and Shabana Mahmood, the current interior minister.
The strategy has been named very clearly and simply, Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy. These are measures which, for a country like Spain, did not involve anyone in the past, but which, in the United Kingdom, have only occupied a place in the political debate in recent years.
Starmer’s executive wants to create special rape and other sexual assault prosecution units within every British police commission, with expert officers ready to confront and investigate this type of crime.
“This government has declared violence against women and girls a national emergency. For a long time, this type of crime has been seen as part of our lives. It’s not enough. Let’s reduce it significantly in this decade,” promised Mahmood, one of Starmer’s ministers with the greatest support, on the ground among Labor’s grassroots and among the electorate. A practicing Muslim of Pakistani origin, she defends a new, tougher migration policy in the United Kingdom.
The strategy that finally wants to extend throughout the country the precautionary and precautionary measures used elsewhere, such as construction orders, compulsory fall arrest, control impulses or exclusion zones, with sanctions of up to five years for aggressors who do not respect any of these provisions.
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