Eradicating Violence Against Women and Girls in Society

In 2019 Wera changed the law to make upskirting a crime. From 2020 – 2022, she was the Liberal Democrats’ spokesperson for Women and Equalities. By 2023, Wera changed the law again to prevent sexual harassment at work.

Wera is tirelessly campaigning to put an end to violence against women and girls. She remains committed to achieving change. Wera’s next goal is to make misogyny a hate crime.

In 2018 Wera put forward a Bill in Parliament to make upskirting illegal. By 2019 it was a crime thanks to her Voyeurism (Offences) Act.¹

Upskirting is the act of taking an image underneath a person’s clothing without their consent. The majority of cases of upskirting take place in public spaces like supermarkets, shops and schools.

Until Wera’s Bill, upskirting was not a specific offence under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 in England and Wales. Upskirting can be linked to many more violent sexual offences. So Wera’s work to help identify and stop perpetrators of upskirting has been monumental in tackling violence against women and girls.

Find out more about Wera’s work to ban upskirting here.

In 2021 Wera wrote to the former Home Secretary, Priti Patel, in an open letter from Stylist magazine to demand that she tackled the epidemic of male violence against women and girls.

The letter called for an end to violence as well as the fear, blame and shame often felt by victims. It demanded a shift in the male attitudes and behaviours that allow violence against women and girls to happen in the first place. The letter also urged for the government to fund an ongoing, high-profile, expert-informed awareness campaign on men’s violence against women and girls.

The full letter can be read here with signatories from many other activists, politicians and public figures.²

After passing the law to criminalise upskirting, Wera took on a new challenge to tackle downblousing in 2022.

Downblousing is where someone’s chest is photographed without their consent. While upskirting was made illegal, downblousing was overlooked in legislation.

Wera wrote to Politics Home to make the case that the law needed to keep up with the new manifestations of misogyny enabled by the digital age. She writes that:

“Downblousing is the latest manifestation of misogyny enabled by the smartphone era. The law must catch up with the times.

“Somehow downblousing is not covered by existing legislation – voyeurism nor revenge porn laws. Downblousing is where someone’s chest is photographed without their consent. An obviously intrusive, disgusting and frankly wrong act that currently carries no consequences.

“It is another manifestation of misogyny and violence against women and girls that the law overlooks. It is time that the law caught up with the 21st century. Recently, the Law Commission proposed that new offences are made in England and Wales, following the lead of Northern Irish law. This law would cover all acts of intentionally taking or sharing a sexual, nude or intimate photo or video without consent.”³

Wera first started campaigning to criminalise downblousing in 2022. Yet three years later the act remains legal in England, Wales and Scotland.

In 2023 Wera changed the law again. This time she amended the Equality Act to require employers to prevent sexual harassment at work.

Wera’s Act is called the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 and it officially became law in October 2023.

After learning of the alarming number of staff who experience sexual harassment while at work, Wera wanted to make a change. Many of the victims of sexual harassment in the workplace are women. So Wera took on the challenge of tackling this insidious form of violence against women and demanded a shift in workplace cultures.

To find out more about Wera’s fight to stop sexual harassment at work, click here.

Wera has worked closely with Avon and Somerset Police’s Chief Constable to support their efforts in combating violence against women and girls.

She actively endorsed their Project Vigilant initiative to tackle street harassment. Project Vigilant takes a perpetrator-focused approach to preventing sexual violence. Inspired by Thames Valley Police’s successful launch of the strategy, it sees specially trained plain-clothed officers patrolling outside bars, clubs and pubs to spot signs of predatory behaviour. If inappropriate behaviour is observed, such as loitering or harassment, uniformed officers intervene before the individual commits an offence.

Project Vigilant is one of many activities the Bath and North East Somerset Neighbourhood Policing Team have delivered to address violence against women and girls in the city. They have also arranged ‘Walk & Talk’ sessions with local residents to find out how safe they feel in Bath. They also often visit licensed premises to advise staff on spiking and how bystanders can intervene.

Wera has been hugely supportive of these preventative strategies used by Avon and Somerset Police. She has also commended the police force’s proactive approach many times in Parliament.

Wera has consistently campaigned to make misogyny a hate crime over a number of years.

Classing misogyny as a hate crime would mean that sex and gender would be recognised as protected characteristics in hate crimes. For example a crime that was motivated by prejudice towards the victim’s gender would be classed as a hate crime.

Wera argues that this would allow the root causes of violence against women to be more easily identified and addressed. Most cases of violence against women and girls originate in misogyny. Hence, Wera believes that making misogyny a hate crime would send a powerful signal to misogynistic offenders that their crimes would be treated with the utmost seriousness.

Despite her tireless efforts, classing misogyny as a hate crime has consistently been voted against in Parliament. In 2022, it was scrapped from the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill.^[4]

Making misogyny a hate crime remains a battle to be won for activists like Wera who want to put an end to violence against women and girls once and for all.

1. “Voyeurism (Offences) Act 2019”, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/2
2. ““We’re calling on you to act now”: read Stylist’s open letter to Priti Patel about ending male violence against women and girls”, Stylist, May 20, 2021. https://www.stylist.co.uk/health/women/open-letter-priti-patel-violence-women-girls/520846
3. Wera Hobhouse, “Making downblousing a criminal offence”, Politics Home, July 25, 2022. https://www.politicshome.com/thehouse/article/wera-hobhouse-downblousing-a-criminal-offence
4. Making misogyny a hate crime”, Gov.UK, August 20, 2022. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/police-crime-sentencing-and-courts-bill-2021-factsheets/police-crime-sentencing-and-courts-bill-2021-making-misogyny-a-hate-crime-factsheet