International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
A report by Jemma Garvey, Women's Representative
Hate crimes against women and girls are on the rise in the UK, particularly with the increase in transphobic rhetoric.
Women who don’t conform to gender stereotypes are even more at risk. And now, their protection is being stripped under the new Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) guidance that is being proposed. The proposals could mean that women or anyone who does not appear or dress in a way that conforms to traditional feminine attire – even those who were assigned female at birth – could be challenged for using single sex spaces, including toilets. For trans women, this causes at best, gender dysphoria. At worst, it is an attempt to expel trans women from public life. For cis people, it is constant judgment.
The irony is not lost on us that the Supreme Court ruling defining a woman as a “person born female” was celebrated by the gender critical movement and organisations like Sex Matters, although the first feminist movements fought against being reduced to their biology and defined by it. Even the colours of the suffragettes have been appropriated by them!
Women are more likely to experience violence than men, although this is not to say men do not experience it. However, women suffer severely from domestic abuse, including rape, assault, being beaten, or controlled. This is regardless of her race, ethnicity, religion, class, sexuality or disability. According to data from the ONS in 2023, one in four women have experienced domestic abuse since the age of 16. This mean that your mother, sister, girlfriend, grandmother, teacher and doctor are all likely to have experienced this in their life.
To add to this, the number of hates crimes recorded by police in England and Wales for the year ending March 2025 now stands at 137,550. This has tripled since March 2013 – and these are only the crimes that have been recorded (statistics from USDAW). There have also been recent reports in mainstream media that women from Black and ethnic communities, often assumed to be Muslim or from the Middle East, are being raped and beaten in racially aggravated attacks. These attacks are in no doubt linked to the rise in hateful rhetoric against migrants and asylum seekers.
Diving deeper, United Nations figures reveal that these issues goes deeper than face to face violence. This year, their focus for International day for the elimination of violence against women focuses on digital violence – up to 95% of online deepfakes are non-consensual pornographic images, of which 90% are women. On top of that, as only 40% of countries have laws that protect women and girls from cyber harassment, 1.8 billion across the world are left without access to legal protection.
Origins of the day
This day originates from the deaths of three Latin American women in 1960 in the Dominican Republic. The three Mirabal sisters, Patria, Minerva and Maria Teresa, are considered national heroines in the DR. Their murders were ordered by the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo – but their deaths were not in vain. In 1981, the Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Encuentros marked November 25 as a day to combat and raise awareness of violence against women. In 2000, the date was recognised by the United Nations.
PCS Proud Members' Meeting
On 25th November, Proud held a member meeting to commemorate this day and discuss its significance with members. Members made valuable contributions in the discussion, sharing personal experiences and commenting on the link between patriarchy and capitalism. Capitalism requires us to be divided – as trans+ people make up a tiny portion of the UK population, they are easy targets. Most media is owned by the Billionaire class in the UK: they need the working class to be divided and distracted from the real problem with society – wealth inequality. The majority of billionaires are white men, who benefit from a heavily Patriarchal and divided society.
One trans man shared his story, speaking about how even his own family members treated him completely differently after transitioning, just because he was a man. Trans men are arguably in a unique position where they’ve seen both sides of how differently men and women are treated – even with loved ones who are accepting of their transition and affirmed gender.
Another member contributed by saying that although things seem grim now with the rise in transphobia and violence against trans women, we will come through the other side. We have lived through this cycle before; with the fight for LGBTQ+ rights in decriminalising homosexuality, reversing section 28, gaining marriage equality. History shows us that scapegoating minority groups is a repeating pattern and eventually, those on the side of human rights for all do win.