It’s a privilege to
be asked to speak at the Woman’s Aid Conference, particularly during White
Ribbon 16 days of action and especially here in my own ward of Irvine.
Here in North
Ayrshire, all of the agencies involved in tackling violence against women have
been working in partnership since 2000.
The partnership is composed of members from North Ayrshire Council,
Women’s Aid, NHS Ayrshire and Arran, Police Scotland, Procurator Fiscals
office, Victim Support and Break the Silence. Our work together
has been based on a shared understanding of what is meant by violence against
women and has allowed for positive collaboration between services, particularly
at an operational level.
The Multi Agency
Domestic Abuse Response Team (MADART) are a great example of this joint
working. Based at Kilmarnock police
station the team comprises Social Services, housing and police personnel and
works in partnership with a range of services including: addictions, health,
welfare rights, women’s aid and the Scottish children’s reporter. Working together the
team have improved the response to domestic abuse incidents ensuring that it is
quick, proportionate and effective which means the best, most timely support
for victims.
Last night the partnership successfully
launched our White Ribbon 16 days campaign with a really well attended event in
Irvine town centre – male supporters from our partner organisations, local
sports clubs, the media and community came together for a candle lit vigil and
to pledge support creating the wonderful banner you see at the white ribbon
stand. “These hands are not for hurting”
After the first half hour of our event, we had to send someone out for
more pledge slips as we had ran out – in just half an hour over 100 men and
boys had signed up pledging to never commit, condone or remain silent about VAW
in all it’s forms.
The scale of
the problem we face here in North Ayrshire is well documented, we are realistic
about the challenges we have here but we also recognise the good work that is
ongoing to improve things for women and children.
I have to
say, it really was heartening to see so many in our community willing to stand
up and be counted last night. We have
many good male role models here in North Ayrshire and we will continue to
encourage them to lead by example.
I’m feeling like I
am amongst friends, so I am going to be completely honest with you all and
admit to being a little daunted by the title of our conference today, of course
interested to listen to the experts and very excited to see the Young Voices
DVD but not entirely sure I could do the topic “The economics of gender based
violence” justice.
I’m neither an
Economist or an academic so today I’d like to talk a little from a perspective
I am comfortable with a political one...now before everyone runs for the door I
don’t mean party politics or even constitutional politics (although I can
confess to having that on my mind today!)
For me, politics is
simply values, priorities - how we think things should be organised, who we
work with and how we work to make our community, country, world better.
Our Public services
are all operating in a landscape of challenging economic times – there’s no use
pretending otherwise, but we do still have choices, challenging and
uncomfortable sometimes but choices none the less.
The changes to
welfare benefits driven by Westminster affect many households here as they do
all over the country. I’m sure you all
share my concern for the impact that these changes have on vulnerable women and
children and some of you might even join me in questioning the rationale behind
the changes – the values and priorities of those who instigate them. I can’t disagree with the statement that work
should pay. But to achieve that I would
see decent wages, affordable homes and accessible, flexible, quality childcare
(provided by people paid decent wages) as a priority not simply slicing a chunk
off the budget that provides social protection for those that need it.
We know that women
are losing out in a direct financial sense from the changes already introduced
and other planned changes through their role as carers to children and indeed
because certain benefits are typically paid to women. Child benefit, child tax credits and the
Childcare element of Working Tax Credit are paid to the main carer of children
usually a woman. (In April 2013, 83% of in-work couples receiving Child Tax
Credits had a female payee.)
Although not with us
for the moment Universal credit looms on the horizon. For all the attention that the pernicious
Bedroom tax has received, it is universal credit which I fear has the most
sinister implications. Women will lose out
because of how it is structured being paid in one single household
payment.
Control being the
"overarching behavioural characteristic" of abusive men this
concentration of financial resource and power in the hands of one person is
hugely problematic.
In households where
it is paid to the man, this will result in a loss of independent income for the
women. There’s also a
terrible stench around all this of a return to the “male breadwinner” type
model in our homes another step back for equality and of course In cases of
domestic violence what this does is gift the perpetrator command of the household
income, further enabling them to control and isolate their partners.
Welfare reform has a
substantial impact on women. Women form
a substantial proportion of the caseload of many benefits and are
disproportionately affected by changes to these benefits as a result.
Money provided to
women is more likely spent on children’s needs than money allocated to men,
therefore this approach will also reduce spending on children. These reforms simply fail to acknowledge the
link between women’s’ poverty and child poverty. Last week, giving
evidence to the Scottish Parliaments health committee, the Child Poverty Action
Group said there are currently one in five of Scotland's children who are
officially recognised as living in poverty, they told MSPs that independent
modelling forecasts "massive increases in child poverty".
As well as the
welfare reforms, women are also affected more as a result of general spending
cuts. Women make up the majority of the
public sector workforce making them more vulnerable to public sector job cuts,
pay freezes and reductions in working hours.
Women are more likely to use publically provided services making them
more vulnerable to cuts to these services.
Additionally voluntary organisations providing services for women and
employing women are also likely to see funding cuts. As women take on more care responsibilities
than men, spending cuts to care and support services are likely to result in
additional care burdens for women.
I said at the start
politics is about choices, values and priorities. When we fail to recognise or choose to ignore
gender impact when making economic decisions, women pay the price. And when women suffer we all suffer, our
children suffer our communities suffer, our country, our world. We must find a way to do things differently
and let the decisions we make reflect the value we place on women’s
contribution more.
The cost of ignoring women is quite simply too high to pay.
Events like today
are crucial in bringing gender impact to the fore of debate, I’m grateful for
the opportunity to be here.
I really look forward
to listening to and learning from our expert speakers today – thank you for
listening.
