Efforts to tackle violence against women and girls must be redoubled, a councillor has said following a survey laying bare misogyny among York’s young people.
Cllr Anna Baxter, of Hull Road ward, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) she had received abuse on the doorstep as an epidemic of violence sweeps the country.
The Labour councillor added 15 per cent of York children who were surveyed disagreeing hitting, kicking or sharing sexual photos of someone was always wrong in a relationship was worrying.
It comes after Cllr Baxter’s motion calling for everyone to take responsibility for tackling misogyny and violence against women and girls was backed by councillors on Thursday, March 27.
The motion called on City of York Council to work with schools to educate young people about healthy relationships and respect for women and girls.
It also called for more awareness-raising events to help meet a national goal of halving violence against women and girls in the next decade.
It notes that the issue is under-recorded, with more than 4,000 domestic abuse incidents estimated in York last year compared to the 2,000 that were reported to North Yorkshire Police.
The motion follows a call for action against violence against women and girls at the council in 2021, when Liberal Democrats called for backing for York’s White Ribbon accreditation bid.
The latest call comes after the York Schools Survey which asked local children about their attitudes towards relationships.
Less than half of those who responded said telling a partner what to wear, constantly checking where they were and being jealous was always wrong.
The issue has also recently received attention nationally due to the Netflix series Adolescence, set in the aftermath of the killing of a young girl.
Former England manager and Harrogate resident Gareth Southgate recently said he was concerned about the toxic effect online influencers are having on young boys.
Cllr Baxter told LDRS a huge task lay before society to tackle misogyny, violence and abuse and the online content fuelling it among the young.
She added that women and girls could not tackle the problem on their own and appealed to men to help.
Cllr Baxter said: “As a councillor I’ve experienced various levels of abuse and unpleasantness from people on the doorstep who say I’m unqualified or I don’t know what I’m talking about, online the abuse can be relentless.
“We need to do more to educate both boys and girls, this is an epidemic and the results of the schools survey are really worrying.
“We’ve seen measures come in recently to try and deal with this but so far things haven’t been working as well online.
“It’s really important to have people like Gareth Southgate and actor Stephen Graham talking out about this and making programmes like Adolescence that spark a national conversation and make people understand the effect these attitudes have.
“After the tragic loss of Sarah Everard we had a response including with the Reclaim The Night protests, those responses show that we’re moving in the right direction.
“Women have been trying to advocate for our safety but we need male allies.
“My message to men would be to listen to us our experiences, it’s so important to make women and especially victims of abuse feel heard.”
Councillors from the opposition Liberal Democrat and Conservatives have joined Cllr Baxter’s calls for action on the issue.
Liberal Democrat Emilie Knight, of Rural West York ward, said the issue must remain at the forefront of everyone’s minds.
The councillor said: “We are proud that in Parliament Liberal Democrat MP Josh Babarinde has introduced a bill calling for domestic abuse to be legally recognised as an aggravating factor in certain offences.
“Josh suffered abuse at the hands of his mother’s ex-partner which had a profound impact on him and his family, which is what has motivated him to get a change in the law.”
Cllr Chris Steward, leader of York Council’s Conservative group, said the authority must look at what has worked elsewhere to deal with the issue.
But he added the Government’s target of halving violence against women and girls in 10 years was not credible enough.
Cllr Steward said: “Violence against women and girls remains in every way totally unacceptable.
“As society the aim should be eradicating it, that will be incredibly difficult but the new government’s target to cut it in half in ten years looks very artificial.
“We must look at what agencies involved in violence want to be done, rather than simply writing letters.”
Government efforts to tackle violence against women and girls include Raheem’s Law, which is set to see domestic abuse specialists placed in 999 control rooms.
Drinks spiking is also set to be made a criminal offence and staff working in the night time economy will be trained to support victims.
Legal protection orders are set to be created for domestic abuse and stalking and people will also be able to find out the identity of online stalkers under Government plans.