Dr. Loretta Trickett, Associate Professor at Nottingham Law School, describes her recent innovative work in the field of misogynistic harassment of women and girls:
We are multi-disciplinary researchers working at University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University who have been investigating misogyny hate crime for several years. We have trailblazed an educational resource based on our research findings that is now being used in Nottingham and Nottingham Trent Universities and is available as a free educational resource to be used with schools, colleges, universities and other public organisations. Through our endeavours we have begun to highlight the importance of education with men and boys on the issue of women’s safety arguing that for too long the focus has been put on women and girls to keep themselves safe from unwanted sexually harassing and abusive behaviour from men.
Nottinghamshire Police were the first police force globally to introduce Misogyny as a hate crime and this initiative put the issue of public harassment of women and girls onto the political agenda. Key findings of our evaluation into the effectiveness of Nottinghamshire Police’s misogyny hate crime policy (available here) include that (1) men and boys should be involved in campaigns and encouraged to challenge masculinities that enable men and boys to act in ways which negatively impact women; and (2) that educational initiatives that teach boys about healthy relationships and identities need to be adopted in primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities.
Working with James Walker of NTU, we commissioned a comic book to be used in these settings, based on real life experiences uncovered in our research, to be used as a tool for starting discussions and challenging negative attitudes. A copy of the comic book, called Changing Minds: The Real Impact of Street Harassment, is available on request. We hope that you will find it interesting and something that you might be able to share and use in your work in this area. We have also produced a set of accompanying educational resources which are available here on our Misogyny Hate Crime Comic web page. The resource has also been used to educate university staff and students at University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent universities on challenging misogynistic attitudes and behaviours on campus. We are keen to improve the lives of women and girls by working to end gender-based hate crime and abuse within a range of institutional settings and would welcome responses from anyone with like-minded interests.