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Last updated on Monday 15 May 2023 at 4:40pm
The University of Essex has launched new policy on tackling misogyny to take a proactive stand against harassment and sexual violence.
Elaine Brown, Director of Inclusion, People and Culture at The University of Essex, shares the importance and positive impact the policy will have on students, staff and the wider community.
The policy intends to raise awareness of the issues and address behaviours which constitute misogyny, sexism, harassment and sexual violence. It provides definitions including the numerous ways in which misogyny can present itself and its harmful and pervasive nature.
We included this to help readers reflect on their own perceptions about what constitutes as misogyny. The policy sets out the roles and responsibilities required to address this challenging societal issue and signposts people on how to report incidents and where to go for help, with reassurance that those behaviours will not be tolerated.
As a university, we’re committed to taking a proactive stand against harassment and sexual violence and recognise the challenges to our society and the negative impact it can have on those experiencing them.
We’re committed to taking a proactive stand against harassment and sexual violence and recognise the challenges to our society and the negative impact it can have on those experiencing them.
Following the murder of Sarah Everard, we consulted with members of our staff and student communities and developed our ‘Tackling harassment and sexual violence against women action plan’. One of the priority actions was to develop a policy on tackling misogyny. Unfortunately, we know that such incidents are prevalent in the higher education sector and need to be addressed.
Getting input from staff, students, and the wider community on this policy was important for us. We consulted with staff, students and internal experts from our academic staff, as well as external experts, such as the Centre for Action on Race and Abuse, Employer’s Network for Equality and Inclusion, and our legal advisers.
They commented on draft versions of the policy through focus groups and written feedback, and we then spent time addressing the points raised by all groups. We made some changes based on this feedback, including defining misogyny more clearly, embedding intersectionality throughout the policy, including higher education-specific examples of misogyny and sexism, and ensuring that the complaints procedure for staff and students was clear.
We launched the policy through a blog by our Director of Inclusion and our Inclusion Champion for sex, gender, pregnancy, maternity and marriage and civil partnership for staff and students. We publicised it through staff and student pages on our website, newsletters and our student union’s social media channels.
We also shared it within our staff networks and forums, and departmental inclusivity leads were asked to share it with their contacts. Our communications highlighted the importance of creating a culture where individuals feel safe and empowered to speak up when they witness or experience misogyny.
In addition to developing the policy, we developed an implementation plan which includes further awareness raising and plans to deliver training and provide guidance.
It’s still early days, but responses to the policy have been positive, and we’re proud to be sector leaders in developing such an important policy. During our consultation process it was clear that it would be welcomed, with some stating that instances and experiences of misogyny and sexism were hard to fully articulate.
Staff members also shared that they felt the policy highlights the seriousness of misogyny and would make them more confident in raising complaints about misogynistic behaviours.
Some quotes from our community:
“I think that it is fantastic that these initiatives exist and that there is a commitment by the University to foster these types of initiatives.”
Staff member
“It is great to know how the university is dealing with [the issue of misogyny] […] The section on misogyny is really clear, and the examples are very helpful.”
Student
Our monthly updates are a great way for you to stay up to date with our work, events, and higher education news.