Rape Crisis Tyneside and Northumberland supports women and girls over the age of 13 who have experienced any form of sexual violence at any time in their lives. Here, they explain how a Voices from the Frontline grant helped them to launch a campaign into the policing of schoolgirls’ uniforms.
How has the pandemic affected the women and girls you support?
We had to adapt to working with women and girls in different ways, moving quickly from face-to-face to phone and online in a very short period. Women and girls were already feeling vulnerable and this compounded it. Everyone is experiencing increased isolation. But others have a lack of privacy, too. We’ve tried to offer as much choice as possible to help make things easier. Alongside this, we’re supporting staff and volunteers with training and additional clinical supervision to cope with changes.
What influenced your decision to launch this campaign?
Young women and girls told us their school uniforms are ‘policed’ in a sexist and sexualised way. Our volunteer activists reached out to them to find out more about the issue. Next, we established a Young Women’s Steering Group to guide the work. The first step was to find out more about it. The Young Women’s Steering Group worked with our activists to explore national and local policy. They designed and disseminated an online survey, carried out interviews and analysed the results.
We’ve established three main interlinking concerns around policing young women and girls’ uniforms in a sexist and/or sexualised way:
- The impact on young women and girls’ education
- The impact on mental health and self-consciousness, in the short and long term
- The links to rape culture.
How did you use your Voices from the Frontline grant?
We’ve secured funding from VOICES FROM THE FRONTLINE annually for four years and the impact has been significant. These grants have enabled us to transform our activism work. We have been able to reach out and engage with more women and girls through public events, service user groups, online consultations and co-production. Our volunteer activists have been able to build campaigns that amplify the voices of the women and girls we reach out to. It’s helped us to challenge rape culture and victim blaming, offer solidarity and raise awareness of our services.
What were some of the most surprising findings you made?
97% of respondents told us that their uniforms were policed in a public place. 68% stated that the policing of their uniform had a negative impact on their education. Young women and girls are told they are not dressed ‘appropriately’. They’re told they’re distracting boys or male teachers, causing safeguarding or welfare concerns, affecting the school’s image, and looking ‘obscene’.
59% of those who had had their uniform policed said it made them feel uncomfortable. 54% were self-conscious and 40% embarrassed. One respondent said the experience “made [her] feel as though [she] should be ashamed of [her] body and that it is [her] responsibility not to distract boys.” Another said she thought the policing of school uniforms was an attempt to “justify the actions and lack of self-control of the males.”
A different student explained how she was “grabbed on the stomach to make sure [she] wasn’t hiding the material.”
“Boys are treated like their violations are due to laziness or negligence, girls are treated like they are deliberately trying to be provocative or sly. There were always more girls that boys who “violated” the uniform policy. Male violations would be something like a white patch on the bottom of a shoe, female violations were almost always sexual – low cut top, short skirt, too much heel on a shoe, not wearing a jumper (boys would go topless on the regular).”
Respondent, aged 25
“It’s happened so much that I’ve lost count… It made me feel more self-conscious about my height and my weight, and I considered stopping wearing skirts… It made me more insecure about my appearance.”
Respondent, aged 15
What do you hope will change as a result of your campaigning?
Young women and girls’ experiences are concerning. There’s clearly a hidden curriculum in schools. Part of this teaches young women and girls that they must dress in a traditionally ‘modest’ way to avoid blame for any sexual harassment or assault from others. Around 1 in 3 women and girls will experience sexual violence at some point in their lives, and yet this continues. Sexual violence is not caused by the length of someone’s skirt, but by a perpetrator seeking power and control over (usually) his victim.
We’re concerned at the casual and pervasive manner in which young women and girls’ uniforms are policed in schools. It’s impacting on their mental health and education, as well as their thoughts about who they are as a women in the world. As is always the case, women of colour and non-majority religions face additional barriers to those they face as women.
We hope that school leaders take note of the experiences of and impact on young women and girls caused by school uniform policing and make changes. We also hope to raise young women and girls awareness of their rights in relation to this issue and offer solidarity.
What are some of your biggest challenges as an organisation?
The biggest challenge for us is increased demand for services and reporting as we return to ‘new normal’. Funding next year is a big problem. Many funders are focused on Covid-19 emergency funding and there’s no clear idea of funding from April 2021 onwards.
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