News & Campaigns

All the latest from HER-itage and our affiliates

17 September 2021 ~ Menopause and the workplace – Women and Equalities Committee Inquiry – closing date for submissions

A 2019 survey conducted by BUPA and the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD) found that three in five menopausal women- usually aged between 45 and 55- were negatively affected at work and that almost 900,000 women in the U.K. left their jobs over an undefined period of time because of menopausal symptoms.

This could mean that women are leaving businesses “at the peak of their experience” which will “impact productivity”. Women in this age group are likely to be eligible for senior management roles, and so their exit can lessen diversity at executive levels. It can also contribute to the gender pay-gap and feed into a disparity in pensions.

Under the Equality Act 2010, menopause discrimination is largely covered under three protected characteristics: age, sex and disability discrimination. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 provides for safe working, which extends to the working conditions when experiencing menopausal symptoms. There have been several calls made for further legislation to require employers to put in place a workplace menopause policy to protect women going through the menopause against discrimination whilst at work.

The Government Equalities Office 2019 ‘roadmap’ on gender equality commits the Government to conduct research into “what works to improve women’s reproductive health, across the life course” and “develop indicators relating to women’s health experience and impact on their work.” The Government has also recently sought views to help inform the development of a Women’s Health Strategy. This inquiry examines the extent of discrimination faced by menopausal people in the workplace, and investigates how Government policy and workplace practices can better support those experiencing menopause.

This inquiry is currently accepting evidence

The committee wants to hear your views. We welcome submissions from anyone with answers to the questions in the call for evidence.

You can submit evidence until Friday 17 September 2021.

Read the call for evidence before submitting – go to https://committees.parliament.uk/work/1416/menopause-and-the-workplace/

July 30, 2021

Better support needed for women who become homeless because of violence – new research published

One in five women who suffer violence will also experience homelessness compared to just one in a hundred who have no experience of violence, according to national data, and yet homelessness services do not currently reflect these women’s needs.

Based on research published 29 July 2021, the Centre for Homelessness Impact (CHI) and the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR) call for responses to women experiencing homelessness and violence, to be “gender informed.”  This means that services provided by local councils and other bodies should be better tailored to meet the distinct experiences faced by women, such as trauma and anxiety.

In some cases, women who suffer violence are still being sent to mixed-sex accommodation, where they can feel unsafe and become retraumatised.  Women say that they sometimes sleep rough or in other unsafe situations if they cannot access single-sex housing.

In other cases, the full significance of the impact of violence as a factor will often be missed as a reason for a woman becoming homeless as services focus instead on trauma responses such as drug or alcohol misuse.

Core recommendations are:

  • A more inclusive, housing-led response to women who have experienced homelessness and violence or at risk of doing so, that provides access to secure accommodation, through rapid rehousing or help to remain in their current home.  This would be accompanied by appropriate support.
  • The increased provision of women-only temporary accommodation
  • New solutions to be developed and tested that support women experiencing violence to remain in their homes, while the perpetrator is moved away.
  • Further development and testing of current innovative interventions, such as flexible financial support (currently a component of a small number of Housing First programmes), Sanctuary Schemes that provide additional security, and Making Safe, a multi-agency initiative in England that keeps women in their home and rehouses perpetrators for up to two years, providing tailored support to all parties.
  • The development of a clear set of industry guidelines, akin to the NICE principles of care, for gender informed care, that are readily translatable into practice, and to which commissioned homelessness services are required to adhere.
  • A shift of policy focus to preventative, rather than crisis-response approaches, including training and screening programmes, such as the Ask and Act programme that is active in Wales.

Read the full report here.

https://www.homelessnessimpact.org/post/better-support-needed-for-women-who-become-homeless-because-of-violence

July 30, 2021

Sexual harassment of disabled women in the workplace – TUC Report

Summary

The #MeToo movement is as important now as it was when it started highlighting the wide-spread and pervasive nature of sexual harassment and sexual assault at work. The stories that were shared as part of this movement echoed the findings of our 2016 report ‘Still Just a Bit of Banter’ and shed light on the lives of women whose experiences of workplace sexual harassment were all too often dismissed and swept under the carpet.

However, the voices and experiences of disabled women have too infrequently been highlighted.

We know that to effectively address sexual harassment we must hear from all workers who encounter it and ensure their specific experiences are taken into account when designing policies to tackle it.

Our previous analysis has revealed the intersectional discrimination and systemic workplaces barriers that disabled women face in the labour market. Disabled women experience an employment gap of 32.5 per cent compared to non-disabled women and a pay gap of 36 per cent compared to non-disabled men, equivalent to £3.68 per hour.

Given the significant systemic discrimination experienced more widely by disabled women at work and in wider society, we felt that it was important to understand their particular experience of sexual harassment in the workplace. We wanted to make sure that when government, regulators, employers and unions develop their responses to pervasive workplace sexual harassment, the experiences and needs of disabled women are at the heart of this.

We therefore carried out the first specifically targeted research of its kind in the UK, seeking the views of more than 1,100 disabled women. We not only asked about their experiences of sexual harassment but also whether they had felt able to report it and what impact the sexual harassment had on their physical and mental health.

This new report adds to previous TUC research on sexual harassment at work and has allowed and provides a foundation on which to build tailored solutions to address the specific experiences of disabled women workers.

We found shocking levels of sexual harassment, with around 7 out of 10 (68 per cent) respondents having been sexually harassed at work. This compares to 52 per cent of women in general. Our research revealed that disabled women experience higher levels of every type of sexually harassing behaviour reflecting the imbalance of power disabled women encounter at work and in wider society.

The research also highlighted that many disabled women workers experience multiple forms of harassment with more than half of respondents (54 per cent) telling us they had experienced two or more types of sexually harassing behaviour, and 45 per cent telling us they had experienced three or more. This points to workplace cultures where sexual harassment is a frequent and normalised occurrence rather than an isolated incident.

Two thirds (66 per cent) of disabled women who were sexually harassed at work did not report it to their employer or supervisor. When we asked why, the most common reason for not reporting was that women did not believe they would be taken seriously. Almost 2 in 5 respondents (39 per cent) gave this reason, with around a third (31 per cent) stating that the barrier to reporting was that they thought it would have a negative impact on their career or work relationships.

The high levels of scepticism around the impact and effectiveness of reporting procedures appeared to be, at least in part, justified by the experiences of those who did report. When disabled women did report their experiences of sexual harassment to their employer or supervisor, the majority (53 per cent) said it was not dealt with satisfactorily.

The sexual harassment that disabled women experienced had a devastating impact on both their health, and careers.  Over a third (34 per cent) reported that their most recent experience of sexual harassment had had a negative effect on their mental health and a shocking one in eight (12 per cent) said their most recent experience of sexual harassment had caused them to leave their job or employer. This report adds to the growing body of evidence that workplace cultures need to change.

Our research has shown that most disabled women workers who’ve been sexually harassed don’t report it to their employers. We can’t therefore continue to rely on reactive systems which are driven by reports from workers.

Workplace cultures will not change while the onus rests solely on individuals who are silenced by hostile workplaces. We need to shift the onus of dealing with sexual harassment at work from these individuals to employers.

And the voices of disabled women must be at the centre of discussion about workplace sexual harassment and bullying because effective solutions can only be created with those they impact, because there is ‘nothing about us without us.’

Given the scale of sexual harassment revealed by our research, we also need an appropriately resourced Equality and Human Rights Commission, both to enforce the new preventative duty and to use their existing enforcement powers in a targeted way that address the specific experience of disabled women at work.

And read more at https://www.tuc.org.uk/research-analysis/reports/sexual-harassment-disabled-women-workplace

July 30, 2021

Safe housing and support for rough sleepers experiencing violence and abuse – Housing, Communities and Local Government

The Respite Rooms Trial Programme will see 12 local areas across England share £3.7 million to fund accommodation and expert support for victims of violence and abuse.

  • 12 local areas to share £3.7 million to fund safe housing pilot for vulnerable rough sleepers
  • The Respite Rooms Trial Programme will create 140 bed spaces and support up to 1,100 people at risk of sleeping rough
  • Victims to receive specialist support alongside accommodation

The programme is aimed at supporting rough sleepers or those at risk of sleeping rough who have experienced the following:

  • domestic abuse
  • sexual assault
  • rape
  • physical assault
  • stalking/harassment
  • exploitation by other rough sleepers
  • sex work

The funding will create a total of 140 bed spaces and support an estimated 1,100 people over a 12 month trial period.

The programme will provide a single gender spaces for victims alongside specialist support from homelessness and domestic abuse and violence against women and girls charities.

This will also include support those with multiple and complex needs such as substance misuse, migrant victims of abuse, and victims of sexual trafficking.

As part of the programme, victims will be offered advice and support to access suitable more permanent safe accommodation.

Under the government’s ground-breaking Domestic Abuse Act 2021, councils will be required to provide life-saving support in safe accommodation for domestic abuse victims and their children who require it, backed by £125 million of government funding.

This funding is part of the long-term strategy to provide comprehensive support to victims, and in addition to £40 million funding boost for victim support services announced earlier this year, as well as a cross-government victims strategy that works better for survivors.

For further information go to https://www.gov.uk/government/news/safe-housing-and-support-for-rough-sleepers-experiencing-violence-and-abuse

July 30, 2021

It has without doubt been an eventful year for victims and witnesses – Victims Commissioner

The Victims’ Commissioner published her annual report on 21 July 2021 providing a retrospective of the work and achievements of her office across a turbulent and momentous year for victims.

In her second annual report since assuming the role in June 2019, and her first to be laid in Parliament, Dame Vera reflects on a year that has been dominated by the criminal justice system’s pandemic response and seen tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) shoot up the political agenda.

Reflecting on the prominence of VAWG issues over the past year, Dame Vera writes: “Following the awful killing of Sarah Everard, the horrific murders of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman, and the collective outpourings from young women and girls on the Everyone’s Invited website, violence against women and girls has understandably been high on the agenda. As such, my report reflects a lot of the incredibly important – and pressing – work that is taking place in this area.”

Alongside developments in tackling VAWG, Dame Vera is keen to use her annual report to highlight the broader and varied issues impacting victims, including endemic delays in the courts system (“justice delayed is justice denied”), and the actions she feels are required to urgently tackle the “significant increase in persistent and serious anti-social behaviour” following successive lockdowns.

The June publication of the end-to-end rape review was a pivotal moment in the year. Dame Vera’s first annual report made headlines for warning that rape has been effectively decriminalised as a result of a collapse in prosecutions.

Addressing these comments 12 months on, Dame Vera says: “Last year, I warned that we were witnessing the effective decriminalisation of rape. Nothing in the past year has swayed me from that perspective. The uncomfortable truth is that if you are raped in Britain today, your chances of seeing justice are slim.”

Commenting further on the rape review, published in June, she says there was “a clear desire from government and ministers to fix the justice system for rape survivors,” and the “powerful apology” from ministers was “encouraging” and the measures announced were “a start”.

But she adds: “the review was carried out by the very government departments and agencies responsible for the poor state of rape in the first place” and, as a result, it was “riddled with compromise solutions”. “Consequently,” she writes, “the proposals are underwhelming, both in their scope and resourcing, and represent some real missed opportunities to bring speedy and effective change.”

There are several further significant milestones for victims expected in the coming months, which Dame Vera focuses on in her report. This includes the long-awaited consultation on the Victims Bill, expected in the autumn, and the second reading of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, due in September, of which Dame Vera says some clauses on mobile phone data downloads “will only serve to damage victim privacy” of rape complainants. Ministers have also promised a review into domestic homicide sentencing.

The report reflects on key events for victims over the past year, such as launch of a new, revised Victims’ Code, and the passing of the Domestic Abuse Act into law. In particular, the Victims’ Commissioner and others successfully campaigned for an amendment to make non-fatal strangulation a specific offence.

Looking to the future and the promised Victims Law consultation in the Autumn, Dame Vera says the time has come to re-conceptualise the status of victims within the criminal justice system. Citing research from her office which found that victims continue to feel marginalised and peripheral to the criminal trial process, she says the introduction of a Victims Law is an opportunity to address this by redefining the status of victims as “active participants”, with rights that flow from this status.

“It has without doubt been an eventful year for victims and witnesses,” she writes. “This is a fascinating role, which I am privileged to have. Much has been done and much remains to be achieved and, as we recover from the pandemic, my ambition for victims is greater than ever.”

https://victimscommissioner.org.uk/news/annual-report-2020-2021/

July 26, 2021