My View: Tackling Gender Inequality Worldwide
- Anna Turley
- Apr 17
- 3 min read
Thank you to everyone who got in touch to invite me to Plan International UK’s event on gender equality worldwide. Whilst I was unable to attend this event, please know this is an issue really close to my heart, and I’ve been so grateful recently to work alongside some brilliant women all over Redcar to support the work they do, like at the Inspiring Women’s Conference and the Junction’s recent Sip and Support empowerment event.
It’s vital to remember just how much work there is to do. According to a UN report released just last week, we are seeing the backsliding of rights, of attitudes to women’s rights and liberation, and a growing cultural movement that wants to see women forced back into a box and stripped of any autonomy. Today, 78 million women globally still lack access to contraception, and 700 women die daily in childbirth – many of them women who didn’t even have a choice, who are suffering because even the rate of medical research into women’s health has slowed. Women earn, on average, 20% less than men, and in half of the countries in the world, there are no laws requiring equal pay for work of equal value between women and men. Shockingly, one in three women have experienced physical and domestic violence in their lifetime. Almost all girls have experienced some form of sexual assault in schools, and more than 100,000 women globally risk facing forced marriage and honour-based abuse. A woman is killed by a man every three days.
I am proud of the key role that our Government plays in the global effort to tackle violence against women and girls (VAWG), and I support its efforts to help countries build strong health and education systems that protect them.
For far too long in Britain, VAWG has been treated as an inevitability, rather than the national emergency that it is. Everyone should be able to both feel and be safe as they go about their lives, and I share our Government’s absolute commitment to tackling this issue head on, including its mission to halve VAWG within a decade.
I was proud to see our strategy released late last year, one that includes putting specialist sexual offence investigation teams into every police force, that prioritises and pledges £550 million in support for survivors of domestic and sexual violence, including for child victims of abuse. It makes spiking a criminal offence, strengthens laws on stalking, and I was also really encouraged to see a ban on deepfakes and AI sexualised images of women and children.
But we also need to tackle the root causes of violence, and recognise that prevention is key. This is through education, supporting schools to challenge misogyny, providing the same opportunities for young girls as boys in our workplaces, and encouraging the women in our society to believe in their strength and set out to achieve.
A 2025 study showed that in just one week, more than a third of pupils aged 11 to 19 heard comments that made them worry about girls’ safety, and over half witnessed misogynistic remarks. In order to break the intergenerational cycle of abuse, it is vital that we act early in challenging misogyny and tackling harmful behaviours, while enabling schools to encourage healthy relationships in children. That is why I am pleased the Government has updated its statutory guidance on relationships, sex and health education.
The new guidance has a focus on helping pupils identify positive conceptions of masculinity and femininity, challenge myths about women and relationships that are often spread online, recognise sexism and misogyny, and understand how to report abuse. Schools can begin following this guidance now, and it will become mandatory from September 2026.
To make sure this education is delivered effectively, I also support our Government’s plan to test the best approaches in schools over the next three years, backed by £11 million of investment. By developing their own approaches, I want to see schools build cultures where misogynistic attitudes and behaviour are not tolerated, and any occurrences are identified and tackled.
Alongside this, I welcome the efforts to make the UK one of the hardest places in the world for children to access harmful and misogynistic content online. I would encourage everyone to contribute to the ongoing consultation into social media to have your say on how social media is impacting the rise of misogyny we’re seeing in the UK and worldwide, so I’ve linked this here too:
