Caroline Lucas, Green MP, has written an interesting article regarding the issue of violence against women and girls. The full article can be found HERE but below is an extract focusing on he role of education:
All over the UK, women's organisations, many of which are struggling with funding in the face of the government's savage spending cuts and reductions in legal aid, are doing innovative work with young people to help change attitudes. For example, the Brighton and Hove based charity RISE delivers a PSHE (Personal Social Health and Economic) preventative education programme on healthy relationships to schools across the city.
Yet work to prevent violence against women and girls cannot be left to occasional campaigns or women’s organisations working in partnership with a few good schools. So in my debate in Parliament today, I want to discuss the role which schools can play as a primary forum for this work. Educational programmes about violence against women and girls, which challenge entrenched attitudes and highlight the gravity of the issue, must be an integral part of the curriculum in every school.
We must also do more to empower young people to cope with the sexual images they are bombarded with everyday. The announcement by the prime minister of a range of measures to tackle the commercialisation and sexualisation of children is a welcome sign that the government is prepared to tackle the kind of imagery which contributes to gendered violence. But it's important that any strategy goes beyond consumer and parent power and include young people from the outset.
If the government is really serious about addressing failing support for its policies amongst female voters, it should begin by doing far more to protect the organisations delivering crucial support for women and girls, and look to prevent gendered violence through education policy.
All over the UK, women's organisations, many of which are struggling with funding in the face of the government's savage spending cuts and reductions in legal aid, are doing innovative work with young people to help change attitudes. For example, the Brighton and Hove based charity RISE delivers a PSHE (Personal Social Health and Economic) preventative education programme on healthy relationships to schools across the city.
Yet work to prevent violence against women and girls cannot be left to occasional campaigns or women’s organisations working in partnership with a few good schools. So in my debate in Parliament today, I want to discuss the role which schools can play as a primary forum for this work. Educational programmes about violence against women and girls, which challenge entrenched attitudes and highlight the gravity of the issue, must be an integral part of the curriculum in every school.
We must also do more to empower young people to cope with the sexual images they are bombarded with everyday. The announcement by the prime minister of a range of measures to tackle the commercialisation and sexualisation of children is a welcome sign that the government is prepared to tackle the kind of imagery which contributes to gendered violence. But it's important that any strategy goes beyond consumer and parent power and include young people from the outset.
If the government is really serious about addressing failing support for its policies amongst female voters, it should begin by doing far more to protect the organisations delivering crucial support for women and girls, and look to prevent gendered violence through education policy.
