News and events

New research on violence against disabled women: It's all about control!

We envision a Scotland where all women and girls are safe and equal citizens. Disabled women are our friends, colleagues, and family members, yet efforts to end men's violence against women often overlook their experiences.  

Men’s violence disproportionately affects disabled women, yet we have a limited understanding of the societal barriers that contribute to this violence and its specific forms. Prevention work rarely addresses disabled women’s unique needs or the intersection of gender inequality and discrimination against disabled people.

To create a Scotland where all women and girls can thrive, we must include disabled people in our planning and prevention efforts. This requires increasing our knowledge of disabled women’s experiences of this violence, actively involving them in developing solutions, and funding prevention work to be fully accessible.

That's why we partnered with Inclusion Scotland to conduct participatory research with disabled women on their experience of men's violence. Read the report, It's all about control!

By advancing both gender and disabled people’s equality, we can build a future where every woman lives with the dignity, respect, and the safety she deserves.

Girls have the right to be safe!

Girls have the right to be safe from violence under Article 19 of the UNCRC and General Recommendations 19 and 35 of CEDAW. 

We want Scotland to be one of the best places to grow up – a country of happy and healthy children.

But evidence shows that girls in Scotland face significant threats to their safety. Safety is a top concern for young girls, especially girls of colour (Girlguiding UK, 2022). Our Girls’ Rights Are Human Rights! report, highlights girls’ anxieties and experience of men’s violence. Girls can't access their rights to education, play, health and participation because they are not safe.

Effective human rights practice that considers girls’ experiences and needs can help end men’s violence against girls and make this Scotland a reality.

• New research shows that only 7% of girls feel completely safe in public spaces (Plan International UK, 2024).

 Harassment

• 1 in 5 girls aged 14-21 experienced public sexual harassment during the lockdown (Plan International UK, 2020).
• Girls feel increasingly unsafe as they get older: 20% of 7-10-year-olds, 31% of 11-16-year-olds, and 43% of 16-21-year-olds feel unsafe outside (Girlguiding Scotland, 2020).
• Women of colour face harassment involving both racial and gender slurs (Zero Tolerance, 2022).

Online Violence

• 71% of girls aged 7-21 experienced online harm in 2020 (Girlguiding UK, 2021).
• Half of girls aged 7-10, nearly 75% of 11-16-year-olds, and 90% of 17-21-year-olds face online violence (Girlguiding UK, 2021).
• Disabled girls, LGBT girls, and girls of colour are more likely to experience online harm (Girlguiding UK, 2022).

 Sexual Violence

• 1 in 3 girls aged 13-17 have experienced sexual violence (Scottish Government, 2018).
• Under-12s are most likely to experience sexual abuse, while 12-18-year-olds are most likely to experience rape (Police Scotland, 2023).
• 73% of girls do not report incidents due to fears of not being taken seriously or other concerns (LGBT Youth Scotland, 2020).

Recommendations

Evidence shows that girls in Scotland are not safe from harassment, online harm, sexual violence, or domestic abuse. To strengthen our Equally Safe Strategy to end men’s violence against women, we need policies that specifically address the unique challenges girls face to realise their right to safety fully.

 Alongside these policies we must:

• Consult with girls, especially marginalized groups, in policy development.
• Involve gender experts in policymaking.
• Ensure that the UNCRC and CEDAW are implemented together, focusing on girls' rights.
• Use gender-specific language to highlight girls' issues.
• Collect and analyse disaggregated data on girls' experiences.
• Fund and support organisations working with vulnerable girls.
• Educate policymakers and practitioners on gender-sensitive approaches to children’s rights.

We can create a Scotland free from men’s violence against women and girls!

Share our briefing on girls' right to safety!

 

References 

Girls’ Rights are Human Rights (2024) Zero Tolerance

Girlguiding Scotland (2020) Girls in Scotland 2020

Girlguiding UK (2021) Girls’ Attitudes Survey 2021

Girlguiding UK (2022) Girls’ Attitudes Survey 2022 

LGBT Youth Scotland (2020) LGBT Young Women & Girls in Scotland 2020 Consultation – Briefing

Plan International UK (2020) The State of Girls’ Rights in the UK: Early Insights into the Impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic on Girls 

Police Scotland (2023) Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy 

Scottish Government (2018) Equally Safe: Scotland’s Strategy for Preventing and Eradicating Violence Against Women and Girls 

Zero Tolerance (2022) Future Tales Report

New project on persuading men and boys to take action on men’s violence against women and girls 

The current way we talk about men’s violence against women risks alienating men from the cause. The women’s movement in Scotland has raised awareness, deepened understanding, and cultivated a state responsibility to support survivors and address this violence.

But it’s crucial for more men to actively engage in solutions. Many men struggle to see their role in the solution, fear saying the wrong thing, or feel unjustly blamed by the term 'men's violence’. This leads many to distance themselves from the subject. 

The solution 

How do we talk about men’s violence against women and girls so that men and boys feel it’s relevant and safe to engage?  

To answer this question, Scotland’s primary prevention organisation Zero Tolerance are working with White Ribbon Scotland, who work extensively on engaging men in combating this issue, and strategic communications experts Equally Ours. We want men in Scotland to better understand: 

• the link between gender inequality and men’s violence against women and girls  

• that everyone benefits from gender equality 

• their role in ending violence against women and girls 

With Equally Ours’ expertise, we will identify the best way to ‘frame’ gender equality and men’s violence against women and girls. We will test the most effective messages at tapping into Scottish men and boy’s values and shifting how they think about this issue.  

This process is called strategic communications and is rooted in cognitive and behavioural science. It is a long-term strategy for narrative change that involves repeatedly using proven messaging to change the way people think and thus their behaviour. You can learn more in the Common Cause handbook.  

Outcomes and future work? 

By October 2024, we will have a better understanding of how to talk about men’s violence against women and girls that increases men’s understanding of the links with gender inequality and encourages them to care, act upon, and speak out about this issue. This is a starting point (not all messages will work for everyone). But we need more men to get involved, and we’re keen to follow the evidence on how to make this happen.  

As the findings from this research emerge, we will work with partners on how we best use them. Success requires?this messaging to be repeated often and widely. By collectively utilising evidenced based communications we can engage more men and boys in prevention work and build a Scotland free from men’s violence against women and girls. 

To learn more about the work, contact info@zerotolerance.org.uk  

We’re failing girls. Here’s what to do about it. 

Scotland should be a place where all children reach their potential. We can achieve this by respecting, fulfilling, and protecting human rights.  

But, our new research shows how we’re failing girls. In collaboration with the collective, we found girls’ human rights to safety, education, play, health, and participation are not being met. 

Human rights policy and practice often focus on either improving the world for women or for children. Policy makers fail to consider how age changes women’s needs or gender changes children’s. This means girls fall through the cracks in legislation. 

Girls Rights are Human Rights! summarises alarming evidence on the state of girls’ lives. 

Girls are sexually harassed in public, face misogyny online, and experience sexual and domestic violence. Police Scotland found girls under 12 are the most likely to experience sexual abuse and 12 – 18 year olds the most likely to experience rape. 

In schools, girls continue to experience sexual harassment and other forms of violence, preventing them from concentrating on learning. Teachers and senior management do not have the skills or resources to respond to their violence and support girls through it. 

All children should have the freedom to play, but gender stereotypes limit the activities girls can take part in. Sexual harassment and feeling unsafe also limit girls’ ability to enjoy the outdoors and public parks, whilst misogyny stops them enjoying online gaming. 

This violence and lack of freedom to play impacts girls’ health. Girls’ happiness has been in decline over the past decade (particularly for girls aged between 7 and 10). Reports find young women are three times as likely as young men to suffer from common mental health problems. But when girls seek healthcare they are often labelled as attention seeking. Girls also feel dismissed when accessing physical health care and struggle to access reproductive healthcare. 

Girls feel their opinions are dismissed and silenced. Policy makers often fail to adequately engage girls. 

There is a simple solution. With the government’s plan for Scottish human rights legislation, we have an opportunity to ensure girls thrive.  

Consider girls.  

When talking about human rights, policy makers and activists must ask how a policy or practice will impact girls.  

What do girls need? 

How do we respect and fulfil these needs? 

By asking these questions and writing legislation with girls in mind, we can create a Scotland where all children reach their potential and thrive. 

Listen to a discussion of the reports' findings:

Learn more by reading the:

Full report

Summary