What can universities do to tackle misogyny?

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. 

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:

• Engage with internal and external and experts when developing the policy. Internal experts could include academics who specialise in the subject and related areas, such as sexism and harassment.
• Include internal stakeholders – for example, staff, students, and staff networks.
• Consider how to embed intersectionality within the policy, including information on how trans women experience misogyny.
• Consider these issues from a wider perspective, but also the higher education perspective and environment, and ensure that any evidence and examples that might come from those are captured within the policy.
• Be clear what your approach is as an institution tackling misogyny.
• Think about an implementation plan, eg communication and training.
• Consider how to empower and support staff and students who may be raising complaints.