On the UN Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), YCL Merseyside would like to draw attention to the deadly crisis of VAWG with a focus on the North of England.
VAWG in the UK is on the rise and data published by the National Police Chiefs’ Council in July 2024 states that recorded VAWG-related crime went up by 37% between 2018 and 2023. In 2022, 122 women were killed by men in the UK. Almost half of women murdered by their male partner had either attempted to leave or had ended their relationship and in 70% of cases women were killed in their home.
Women in the North of England have the highest rates of domestic violence in the country. The highest rates are in the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber then the North West.
Socialists understand that VAWG is intrinsically linked to the structure of capitalist society. Marx and Engels explored in The German Ideology that the ruling ideas of any society are the ideas of the ruling class and patriarchal ideology is just that for the ruling capitalist class. Patriarchal ideology maintains the class relations necessary to uphold capitalist
exploitation. Through the super-exploitation of women’s labour, more profit is extracted for capitalist gain, and women suffer under the double burden — exploitation in the workplace and responsibility over domestic labour in the home. We see this in unpaid labour such as unpaid care. Women in the North of England provide the highest amount of unpaid care and in one year will contribute £10bn of unpaid care to the UK economy.
Subordination of women originates and is deeply rooted in class society and the oppression of women. Women’s oppression has become so universalised that it is divorced from its class origins and therefore seen as the “natural” order of things, which explains the prevalence of VAWG under capitalism.
Statistically women in the North of England work more hours and for less pay. They also suffer with worse housing and are likely to have worse health.
The same areas of the North of England that have higher rates of domestic violence also have the highest rates of poverty. This is no coincidence.
In March 2023, The Femicide Census identified Knowsley, a constituency in Merseyside, as the constituency with the highest rate of killed women in the UK that year. In a 2019 spending review Knowsley Council stated Knowsley’s funding has been cut by £485 for every person in the Borough compared to the England average of just £188 per person. The destitution of the working class is particularly acute in Knowsley, impacting women already economically and socially disadvantaged by the capitalist system.
Neoliberal policies of austerity ravage the most deprived areas of the country. As we see cuts to public services including children’s services, housing, mental health services, women’s charities and more. This has a direct correlation to the increase of VAWG. As the state continues to aid and abet the capitalist elite to extract more money from these vital services, violence turns inwards to the home and its working class women who bear the brunt of a failing economic system in perpetual crisis.
Women’s oppression is maintained by the ideology of gender. Social expectations of masculinity and femininity, including stereotypical and exaggerated ideas around what it is to be a woman or a man, are reproduced through state institutions and capitalist-owned media. We are seeing a rise in online discourse around “traditional family values” and more, social media is flooded with male YouTube influencers promoting masculinity, misogyny and anti-feminism.
Structural analysis of inequality is being replaced by reactionary identity politics dangerously shifting the focus from the collective experience to individualism. In order to resist the scourge of violence against women and girls the left must seek to deepen and develop its understanding of the material basis of women’s oppression and exploitation and make clear our position that VAWG is a consequence of the crisis of capitalism and will only be fully defeated with the dismantling of it.
Annie Cogan-Thomas is a member of the YCL’s Merseyside Branch
With Georgina Andrews, YCL General Secretary
Find more at the sources:
https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/101751/html/
The price of women’s equality is eternal vigilance | Morning Star
2022-Femicide-Census-Report.pdf
Vast inequalities faced by women in the North of England exposed in report – Health Equity
North
Britain‘s Road To Socialism (Communist Party 2020)
Understanding homelessness | Homeless Link
Home Office not doing enough to keep women and girls safe, watchdog says – BBC News
Women and Class (Mary Davis, 2020)
