Sinead Daly
This year’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, beginning on November 25th, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, will see events across Scotland and the world highlighting the daily reality of gender-based violence and demanding action.
The numbers are chilling – one in three women around the world will be raped or beaten in her lifetime… that’s over ONE BILLION women! The figures in Scotland and the UK offer little comfort:
- 61,934 reported incidents of domestic abuse reported to the police in Scotland – l 83% women victims (2022-23)
- 5,025 sexual assaults and 2,522 reported rapes / attempted rapes (2023-24)
- 37% of sexual crimes reported in the UK in 2021/22 were girls under 18
These figures are just the tip of the iceberg, as most women never report their experiences. What is clear is that the demand for specialist women’s support services is not letting up.
Rape Crisis Scotland continues to see waiting lists of over a year in many of their services and has reported another significant 21% increase in the number of survivors seeking support.
Their National Advocacy Project, which supports survivors of rape and sexual violence to report to the police, has seen a staggering 80% increase in those seeking support.
Despite this alarming demand, these essential services remain chronically underfunded. Refuge provision across Scotland is dangerously inadequate: 50% of women seeking emergency refuge accommodation are turned away due to lack of space, placing women and children’s lives in real danger.
Cuts
Cuts to local authority homeless services mean that even this safety net of a place to escape to is at risk. Glasgow City Council have admitted that the latest round of £5m cuts to their homeless services budget puts them at risk of being unable to meet their statutory duties for emergency accommodation.
The cost-of-living crisis is also putting women’s lives at risk. A recent Women’s Aid survey revealed that 73% of survivors of domestic abuse say the cost-of-living crisis keeps them trapped in abusive relationships.
Women on low incomes are four times more likely to be trapped in abusive relationships and unable to leave due to financial insecurity. The onslaught by the Starmer government on benefits will make this situation even worse.
Across the world, women are rising to challenge this exploitation. In Iran, women defy state repression; in Kenya, thousands took to the streets demanding an end to femicide; in Argentina, the #NiUnaMenos movement has catalysed powerful challenges to state inaction on femicide. In the UK, vigils like those held after Sarah Everard’s murder call out a police force that fails to protect women and to defending our right to protest.
Decades of local and national strategies aimed at preventing gender-based violence have failed to make a real impact. However, the levels of violence and abuse are systemic – they are the consequence of a fundamentally unequal capitalist system that perpetuates sexism and abuse.
Socialism
We need more than just policy changes. We need full funding for public services and support for specialist services facing devastating cuts. We must fight cuts, organise in workplaces, universities, and communities, and unite in action.
In challenging sexism, we’re fighting for a world free from sexism, violence and abuse, where everyone has control over their lives and futures—a fight inseparable from ending capitalism. A fight for a socialist society.
