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What actually works to end gender-based violence

The answer to ending men’s violence against women is ‘Primary Prevention’, which works to end this violence before it starts, so no woman or girl experiences it ever.  

Primary prevention aims to create a gender equal community where men’s violence against women is unthinkable. It never happens. Rape crisis and women’s aid centres are no longer needed, the government invests the billions spent on this issue elsewhere, and women no longer feel like they have a curfew when the sun goes down.  

This may sound like a fantasy land, but we know it’s achievable.  

We just need to do primary prevention. But not just any, it needs to be effective. So, what works? 

Focusing on widespread culture, attitude, and behaviour change 

Effective primary prevention recognises that men’s violence against women and girls is a structural problem: meaning it is deeply embedded in all structures of our society, such as legal systems, work, and education. The root of the problem is gender inequality.

We need a pro-active, large-scale, and interconnected approach to improve gender equality amongst people, within organisations, and throughout society. This might be challenging gender stereotypes throughout education to change individual’s assumptions. It could also be the government developing policies and practices to minimise gender inequality, such as the gender pay gap, or implementing free childcare.  

Being community specific and informed by the local context 

It is crucial that we work with and tailor primary prevention work and interventions to the community we are working within. Effective prevention empowers individuals, creates positive interpersonal relationships, and views behaviour change as a collective endeavour towards greater equality for all women. Understanding the different needs of everyone within a community is essential.  

Women who are pushed to the edges of society and as a result have no, or very little, power suffer greater inequality and are more vulnerable to men’s violence. Other forms of inequality affect women’s experiences of men’s violence, such as race, ethnicity, class, ableism, religion, sexuality, gender identity, migration status, or poverty. This variance must inform primary prevention work if it’s to end men’s violence for all women and girls.  

Tackling multiple factors that drive men’s violence  

The driving forces that contribute to men’s violence are: 

• Attitudes in our society that accept violence against women and girls. 

• Men’s control over decision-making and limiting women’s independence.  

• The promotion of harmful ways of expressing manhood and enforcing strict gender stereotypes. 

• Peer relationships and values between men that promote dominance,  control and aggression.  

Addressing these factors is critical for effectively stopping men’s violence against women and girls. Tackling them involves changing social attitudes, supporting women’s independence, ending gender stereotypes, and promoting healthy relationships. 

Including all genders, particularly men and boys 

Research shows that primary prevention approaches that only challenge men or only empower women are not effective. Approaches that both redistribute power and create new and better understandings of gender are most successful. 

Men who do not commit violence are important allies in improving gender equality by challenging harmful gender stereotypes and misogyny. We can do this by promoting positive expressions of being a man. In addition, research suggests that mixed gender groups are the best environment for men and boys to learn about the realities of men’s violence against women and girls. 

Following best practice 

While not just relevant to primary prevention, the following good practice suggestions are vital for effective primary prevention: 

• Robust planning. 

• Involve participatory learning methods. 

• Age-appropriate design, that includes play for children. 

• User-friendly materials. 

• Integrated support for survivors. 

• Workers that are passionate about the issue and are supported.  

An example of effective primary prevention  

Australia’s national approach to prevention, Our Watch Change the Story, is an evidence based, nationwide framework to guide a coordinated approach to ending violence against women and girls. It is a feminist-informed public health approach that involves the ‘whole-of-government’.

At the heart of this approach is an emphasis on tackling deep-seated social, political, and economic inequalities that maintain and reinforce gender inequality. Another significant strength of this approach is that it is intersectional and considers the other forms of oppression and inequality that exacerbate violence against women and girls. 

Our Watch has a clear plan of action for tackling the multiple drivers of violence against women and girls, the underlying social context and supporting actions to reinforce good practice.   

Scotland could follow Australia’s lead and invest in our own feminist informed nationwide primary prevention programme. Why wouldn’t we when it’s the answer to ending men’s violence against women and girls? 

Nursery staff’s biggest challenge 

What we learned at #BuildingBlocks23 — Children in Scotland’s Early Years Conference 

There was a buzz at Children in Scotland’s national early years conference, #BuildingBlocks23, but attendees made it clear that the early years sector faces significant challenges.  

Staffing squeezes, inadequate funding, slow recruitment, low staff retention, undervalued, and underpaid — nursery staff feel that they are the least respected and “most interfered with profession in the world.” 

Attendees’ engagement with workshops on trauma, visual impairment, working with families and play, showed their commitment to giving every child they work with the best possible start. 

However, the need for proper support and resource from the government permeated all the conversations. Practitioners cannot achieve what the system makes unachievable.  

It is nursery staff who are on the frontline trying to provide what the system fails to, all while dealing with parents’ frustrations and anxieties. They don’t feel appreciated.  

That’s why we’re calling on the Scottish Government to support childcare settings by delivering a well-resourced, holistic approach to embedding gender equality in the early years. 

We hosted a stall at the conference and got to spend the day talking to early years staff across Scotland. They loved our ‘You Can Be’ book and posters about counter-acting gender stereotypes in early years settings. Many read our Gender Equal Play resource and our new briefing for setting managers.  

Practitioners agree with us about the importance of stereotype-free, child-led play. They told us how difficult it is to avoid the ubiquitous gender stereotypes in children’s lives: from the clothes they are dressed in, to the toys they are given, to how they see adults around them behaving. They asked us if there is training available — practitioners are clear that they want support, resource, and capacity to create gender equality in their setting.  

We agree. We want the Scottish Government to: 

• Fund and resource the early years workforce. 

• Encourage men to become early years practitioners.  

• Mainstream gender, racial, LGBTQ+, class, and disability equality as core topics throughout nursery staff’s pre-qualification training and continuous professional development.  

• Mainstream gender transformative approaches in all early years’ toolkits, by creating guidance and strategies that provide gender equality by challenging gender norms and distributing power equally. 

• Support early learning and childcare settings to develop a ‘Challenging Gender Stereotypes’ policy.

• Provide counter-stereotypical books and toys. 

Despite the challenges the sector is facing, the appetite for change is clear. Together we can end gender stereotyping and prevent men’s violence against women and girls.  

It’s the International Day of the Girl but girls’ rights are falling through the cracks in Scotland 

The Scottish government works to enshrine the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child into law. Concern grows as violence increases in schools and attendance diminishes. The cost-of-living crisis puts more children in poverty.  

Scotland is experiencing a cultural shift around children’s rights, but girls are being left behind. 

Girls in Scotland are at risk of violence, harassment, and mental illness, feel less safe in public spaces, and are less able to take part in sport and play. Despite this, little of the emerging legislation, policy, and practice designed to progress children’s rights considers girls. Girls’ rights are falling down the cracks between legislation for children and legislation for women.  

That’s why, this International Day of the Girl, we’re shouting that #GirlsRights are human rights! 

 

Girls' lives in Scotland 

Violence, harm, and abuse 

A range of research in both Scotland and the wider UK show that girls do not feel safe at school, in public, or online. Many girls are experiencing harassment, sexual assault, rape, domestic abuse, FGM, and online harm. This is more likely for girls of colour, disabled girls and LGBT+ girls. 

Education 

A lot of coverage of children’s access to education focusses on the gender attainment gap and underperforming boys. But girls also have issues accessing education due to experiencing violence, misogyny, and sexism; gender segregation in subjects; gender stereotypical views held by teachers; and gendered school uniform policies. We are still waiting to see whether the Scottish Government’s education reform process will tackle gender inequality in schools.  

Play 

Gender stereotypes about what kind of play is allowed for girls, about the need to stay clean, and which force girls to take on more responsibilities at home than boys, all prevent girls’ equal access to their right to play. This is compounded by parks being designed with boys’ needs in mind, feeling unsafe playing out in public spaces, less access to sport, and exclusion by boys.  

Health, mental health and reproductive healthcare 

15 years of research by Girlguiding shows that girls’ mental health is getting worse. More girls, and younger girls, are unhappy, anxious, and depressed. A 2022 survey of 14-year-olds found girls were more likely than boys to say they had felt depressed, felt down on themselves, thought about death a lot, had hurt themselves on purpose, were ‘not very happy’ with how they looked. Despite this, girls are not being given specific attention in approaches to mental health. They face barriers to accessing healthcare, especially if they are neurodivergent, have caring responsibilities, or are trans. Barriers increase when accessing reproductive healthcare, an important part of a girl’s right to choice and bodily autonomy.  

 

UNCRC and CEDAW 

Human rights are universal. They apply equally to everyone. But accessing these rights can be impacted by different things for different people. To make sure everyone’s rights are met, there are extra conventions which give certain groups extra protection. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) are two examples of this. Within policy, we often view them as ‘sister conventions’ that work together to advance women’s and girls’ rights.  

But this isn’t what we’ve seen in practice. Work often focusses either on improving the world for women or for children, failing to consider how age can change a woman’s needs or gender can change a child’s. Girls, and their unique experiences, become invisible, their needs forgotten.  

 

Human rights in Scotland 

The Scottish Parliament has committed to incorporating UNCRC into Scots Law. The Scottish Government is currently consulting on the Human Rights Bill, which seeks to incorporate CEDAW alongside other treaties. This all aims to create a ‘human rights culture’ in Scotland.  

However, so far, the Scottish Government’s approach to incorporating and implementing UNCRC has failed to consider the unique needs of girls. For example, the minutes of the UNCRC Strategic Implementation Board (SIB)’s only mentioned gender twice and only in relation to how the gender recognition act may affect the bills’ progress and children’s rights budgeting.  

Whilst the board consulted women’s organisations during the bill’s progression through parliament, no organisations advocating specifically for girls attended these SIB meetings.  

The Human Rights Bill consultation paper suggests that the approach to CEDAW will be age neutral. This replicates international patterns and leaves girls’ rights in Scotland at risk of falling between the cracks in policy. 

 

Impact on Girls in Scotland 

Implementing rights is not a case of ‘one size fits all’. Previous approaches to children’s rights have failed to consider how gender shapes children’s experiences and so girls’ rights are not being realised in Scotland. Without Scottish policies which recognise how gender and age affect people’s needs, this pattern will continue.  

Girls’ rights are human rights, and we need effective policy to ensure they’re upheld. This International Day of the Girl, we call upon the Scottish Government to include girls as they build a human rights culture in Scotland.  

Inside look: the role of our Policy and Practice Officer: Children and Young People 

A short interview with our policy and practice officer about her work at Zero Tolerance. 

 

What do you do as Zero Tolerance’s Policy and Practice officer for Children and young people?

My role focusses on embedding gender equality in children and young people’s environments in Scotland.  

We know that to prevent men’s violence against women and girls, we need to change the attitudes and behaviour of adults who work with children, and the culture of the environments children and young people spend time in.  

This means I work with policy makers, decision makers and practitioners to make early years settings, schools, and youth-work spaces more gender equal.  

 

What are some of your regular tasks? 

The role is really varied and exciting. Tasks I do regularly are: 

 

• Reviewing documents: Often when we are working to influence policy, we will review policy documents, such as guidance for teachers, children’s sector strategies, or proposed legislation. We look at whether the work will strengthen gender equality and prevent men's violence against women - tracked changes and comments are essential! 

 

• Reading and writing: Zero Tolerance is Scotland’s expert organisation on primary prevention. I don’t know everything though, so I try to spend a few hours each week (outdoors if I can!) reading books and research. Keeping informed is essential when it comes to writing policy briefings, consultation responses, letters, and sometimes I write bigger research-style papers.  

 

• Talking to decision makers: I spend a lot of time meeting with people who have the power to make change in the children’s sector. This includes civil servants, people working in third sector organisations, and practitioners. I meet them at government working groups, 1:1, and at conferences. It’s great to hear their expertise and share Zero Tolerance’s message.  

 

What skills do you rely on for your job? 

I use a lot of skills which I have transferred from other areas of my life to do my job well.  

 

• Reading complex documents and taking effective notes helps me process new information and research.  

 

• Focus and attention to detail help me to review policy documents and suggest amendments so Scottish policy will further gender equality.  

 

• Organising my thoughts and communication skills help me to share Zero Tolerance’s message on paper or through talking to people.  

 

• And finally, I love a to do list, and my organisation skills help me keep on top of such a varied and interesting role.  

 

Who do you regularly work with through your role? 

We are a small team at ZT, so it’s nice to work with a whole range of people. Most often I work with Jenny, our Research and Participation Officer, who is a fountain of all knowledge on research about equality, rights and prevention.  

 

Then, I work with Laura, the Co-Director who oversees our policy and research work – she is super supportive and helpful with all my work.  

 

Quite often I work with Lynne, our wonderful Communications Officer, who helps me work out the most persuasive way to share our message.  

 

Just now I am also working with our Intern, Tunvii, who is swapping her expertise for some experience of policy work.  

 

What do you enjoy about your role and working in the women’s sector? 

The best thing about working at ZT is the team. I feel so genuinely supported and respected working here – both by my teammates and by the organisation. This lays the foundation to be able to give my best to the role, which leads to exciting progress on equality and safety for girls and young women. I care deeply about that, and it’s a privilege to be part of that journey. 

 

What challenges do you come across in your work? 

Policy work can be quite frustrating sometimes. The cogs of government move slowly, and it can sometimes take months to achieve progress. Patience and a great team to go back and vent to are super important. And it means that when you make progress – even small wins – you must celebrate it! 

 

What advice would you give to someone wanting to work in policy or the women’s sector? 

I think a lot of people can be intimidated by the world of policy, but it actually requires a lot of transferable skills which you’ll already have. Plus, good policymaking accounts for real people, so your lived experience is also valuable expertise. We need people like you!