Welsh Women’s Aid

PRESS RELEASE

For release under embargo: 00.01 , 1 June 2010

Today (1^st June), the Welsh Assembly Government launch a national public awareness campaign aimed at challenging commonplace negative attitudes and behaviours towards women, as part of their strategy to tackle violence against women.

Welsh Women’s Aid warmly welcomes this innovative campaign and has played an active role in its development. The campaign focuses on attitudinal change and consists of a TV advertisement, billboard posters and a website explaining further the links between commonplace negative attitudes towards women and the violence committed against them.

The TV advertisement follows a woman on her journey through an average day, showing a range of abusive behaviours that she encounters from men – en route to work, in the office, out at a bar and on her way home in the night. The concept is that these behaviours, generally thought of as ‘harmless’, add up to something unacceptable to the woman concerned. It asks men to re-assess the impact of their attitudes and behaviour (and that of their peers), placing them in a continuum of behaviours which are linked to violence against women.

Paula Hardy, Chief Executive, said:

‘We’re very pleased with this powerful new campaign, which links everyday behaviours which demean women (and the attitudes underlying these behaviours) with the epidemic social problem of violence against women. The link is essentially gender inequality – which the Assembly Government now recognises as both a cause and a consequence of violence against women.

Most public awareness campaigns looking at domestic abuse and other forms of violence against women have, until now, been aimed at asking women to come forward to report abuse once it’s already happened. However, if we want to actually reduce the prevalence of violence – which affects 1 in 4 women and kills 2 women every week in England and Wales – we need to look at preventing it before it happens, by challenging attitudes and encouraging respect, rather than placing the responsibility on women to report abuse once it has happened. We have been pushing for this for a long time at Welsh Women’s Aid.

Violence against women, including domestic abuse, cannot be understood in isolation from the norms, social structure and gender roles within society. Welsh Women’s Aid groups throughout Wales are at the forefront of practical responses to preventing domestic abuse from happening in the first place. As a movement, we strongly support this campaign and hope it encourages some debate about issues that are widely seen as normal, inevitable or unchangeable.’

Ends

Notes

• Welsh Women’s Aid is the national umbrella organisation for Women’s Aid groups in Wales, representing 34 independent and autonomous local groups across Wales. WWA provides specialist training to groups, lobbies and campaigns on their behalf at national level.

• Our member groups provide direct support to thousands of women and children who are experiencing, or have experienced, domestic abuse. Last year, our groups across Wales supported over 1000 women in refuge accommodation and approximately the same number of children and young people.

• Welsh Women’s Aid manages the Wales Domestic Abuse Helpline, a national, bilingual, free-phone service which provides information on practical options for anyone experiencing abuse or wanting to know more about support services in Wales. The helpline is available 24 hours on 0808 80 10 800. Of the 22,285 calls made to the Wales Domestic Abuse Helpline, 5571 were from callers personally experiencing domestic abuse, with 94% of victims being women.

• The Assembly Government campaign will run for 1 month and will feature TV ads in Welsh (S4C) and English (ITV Wales) and posters throughout Wales. There will be a Campaign Hub website which will hold further information, FAQs, a comments section, a poll and downloadable campaign materials.

For more information contact:

Paula Hardy (Chief Executive):  07766524489

Hannah Austin (Policy Officer): 07854815203

www.welshwomensaid.org

029 2039 0874