In the wake of Sarah Everard’s death, the conversation around violence against women has been steadily increasing in volume, but have we become inured to the shocking statistics that demonstrate just how widespread domestic violence in the UK really is? Speaking last night at our panel discussion on how to tackle violence against women, We Need To Talk About Women's Safety, Jess Philips, the Shadow Minister For Domestic Violence And Safeguarding, expressed her fear that as a nation, we’ve learnt to accept realities of domestic violence and violence against women in this country.
‘Violence against women and girls is a shadow pandemic that has been going on throughout the Covid crisis,’ she told the panel host, Lucie Cave. 'It’s always been there, and the problem we’ve had, that I’m hoping this most recent period of action and concern will I hope override is that we’ve learnt to accept it.
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'We’ve learnt to accept hat a woman dies every three days, we’ve learnt to accept the massive number of rapes that occur in our country without justice. We’ve learnt to accept domestic abuse on every street in our country. The sheer volume of violence against women and girls is so big we can’t see the wood for the trees anymore.
But Philips pointed to where change could make a huge difference - overhauling the criminal justice system for one, and specifically, taking sexual offences much more seriously, plus better support for children and adults who have been victims of domestic abuse, better housing and refuge services, and making domestic violence everyone’s problem, so difference services, for example, the health service are forced to have a coherent strategy on domestic violence.
WATCH: We Need To Talk About Women's Safety in full
We Need To Talk About Women's Safety was broadcast to mark four weeks since Sarah Everard was reported missing after walking home from a friend’s house in Clapham, sparking a national conversation about how violence against women must be addressed at a societal level.
We want everyone to be able to walk the streets safely without fear and be at home without fear, which is why Bauer Media’s radio and publishing brands have come together to bring you this special event to provide a forum to discuss what needs to be done to support change.
If you need to report instances of harassment or abuse and feel comfortable to do so you can contact the Met Police or theNational Domestic Abuse helpline.
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