Women’s rights at risk

Misogyny should be made a hate crime, ‘up-skirting’ should be criminalised and protection from pregnancy discrimination should be extended, a panel of legal experts chaired by retired High Court judge Dame Laura Cox has argued in a major report.

The Fawcett Society, an influential charity that campaigns for women’s rights, published its Sex Discrimination Law Review this week. Dame Laura’s panel reviewed the UK’s sex discrimination laws to gauge their effectiveness and the potential risk of erosion of rights post-Brexit.

It concludes that the laws on sexual harassment should be strengthened to protect women from harassment by third parties such as customers or contractors; ‘up-skirting’ (taking photos up women’s skirts) should be made an offence; misogyny should be a hate crime; any breach of a domestic abuse order should be made a criminal offence; and protection from pregnancy discrimination should be extended to six months after maternity leave ends.

Dame Laura said: ‘There is a powerful case for change, to ensure that our sex equality laws are fulfilling their purpose, that employers do more to prevent sex discrimination in the first place, and that working women have access to justice to enforce their rights where they need to.’

The panel found that progress on closing the pay gap has stalled, that a lack of transparency prevents women from challenging unequal pay and legal cases can take many years to resolve. For example, it cited evidence that 54,000 pregnant women and working mothers are pressured to leave their job early each year but just 1% of cases go to tribunal, and women are not protected when they return to work from maternity leave. Moreover, the number of legal centres around the country has halved in ten years, making access to justice more difficult.

Dame Laura added: ‘The evidence we received, of increasing levels of violence, abuse and harassment against women, was deeply disturbing.’