Today the UK Government has launched its new Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy, ‘Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls’. Recognising all child survivors of abuse, yet by putting forward a gendered Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy was always going to be a complex puzzle. The sector has long asked itself how we keep the focus on a feminist interpretation of gender-inequality around Gender-Based Violence yet not leave some victims in the shadows (particularly boys and men, in the case of VAWG). The language of VAWG is often unhelpful in this context. Indeed Government analysis in 2025 highlighted a challenge with VAWG as a title is that there is a lack of consensus in definitions and measurement across public bodies. Yet having a gendered focus is vital. I would have preferred to frame this issue as ‘majority male perpetrated violence’ (MMPV).*
We need to get the public conversation to focus on the way in which a patriarchal system produces male violence yet also harms boys and men who reside within it. It was great to see Rt Hon Jess Phillips MP explicitly mention the ‘millennia of patriarchy’ in parliament today during the announcement. As bell hooks astutely noted, we live in a White supremacist capitalist patriarchy, and using this lens of structural power can help us see why it is also working-class, poor, marginalised, and Black boys who often fail to receive the dividends in this system too. Boys in this system are loaded with the pressures of masculine success, to be tough, strong, invulnerable, rational, money-making, yet boys without the means to do this can engage in protest masculinity outside of the mainstream to address it (as I explored in my first book). A patriarchal system loads pressure on men and boys which renders them less likely to speak out about their own experiences of harm and violence victimisation. Harmful masculinity norms fuel the men’s mental health crises and limit opportunities for growth and healing.
The current strategy brings in boys through a focus on masculinity aware sessions in schools for boys as a key site of violence prevention. Media reports this week focused on this aspect, with the BBC reporting that the strategy will ‘target boys.’ This clickbait framing is unhelpful yet characterises the adversarial approach to tackling masculinities since the cultural moment of the Netflix show Adolescence early in the year. At that time instead of the public focus being on the act of Gender-Based-violence in the show much commentary took many turns including the ‘we are failing boys’ group, and ‘we are failing to see the girl’s stories and voices in this show’ camp. At the time the government response was to pay to show Adolescence in schools, leaving many of us unsure about the way this would be contextualised to be a real teachable moment, not co-opted through an anti-feminist lens. This is an ongoing risk with work around masculinities in contemporary times.
Funnily enough my 10-year-old brought this topic up with me this week (not knowing that I was also thinking about this for my work) and said that boys had been taken off separately to learn how to ‘treat girls better’. She said she felt 10 was too late, as they ‘know themselves by then’, and that it was pointless when she sees how parents talk to their boys. She thought it would be better if the parents were spoken to, as the boys felt that girls had ‘dobbed them in’ (the worse thing you can be at junior school apparently is a ‘snitch’) and that boys were learning they needed to have ‘sympathy’ for girls. She doesn’t want their sympathy. This perspective risks reinforcing girls’ subordination, framing them as in deficit.
This highlights the sensitivity and nuance that is needed when speaking to boys about gender-inequality and masculinities. This is a skilled piece of work and facilitators need specialist curriculum (developed with a feminist lens) and support to do it. Who delivers these sessions matters too. Expecting women teachers (who are disproportionately impacted by gendered violence and classroom misogyny) to lead them can place an unfair burden on them. Ideally male educators should share responsibility and model gender equality and respect in the room, as is standard in perpetrator programmes. Yet we know that care work and teaching in the early years (with a lower pay grade) is female dominated.
It is also important to consider what is ‘early’ in early intervention. If my 10-year-old sees that as too late, where should we be tackling this work? Is it in pre-school parent’s groups where you often hear the ‘boys will be boys’ messages among parents excusing their boy’s behaviour? Is it in infant school when you see girls quietly withdraw from mixed football and sports as they find boys too exclusive, aggressive, and dominant? The VAWG Strategy mentioned that education will be focused on secondary schools (11yrs+) by the end of parliament in 2029 (pg. 36). Whether this will be young enough to make a real societal shift remains to be seen.
It was welcome to hear that there will be piloted targeted in-school interventions for children exhibiting early violence. I hope this is dealt with an explicit focus on the dual support for those who are also victims of violence at home concurrently. Likewise, masculinity-focused prevention sessions must also explicitly acknowledge that some boys in the room are living with male violence. Simply telling boys to respect women and girls ignores the reality that many boys are also navigating unsafe homes. We need to ask how brief school-based education programmes can stand a chance for boys who simultaneously live with violent misogynists. Support to help boys access safety and process these experiences is essential. Yet as the Domestic Abuse Commissioner highlighted earlier this year, specialist support for child survivors is patchy and chronically underfunded. The VAWG Strategy promised £5.3m funding will be provided for child survivors. It mentions the Best Start Family Hubs, ‘Families First Partnership Programme’, and the funding of a randomised control trial to assess interventions for children (pg. 38-39). The strategy emphasises that support will be provided, ‘once the perpetrator of the abuse has left the family home’ (pg. 39). Let’s hope that doesn’t mean that children with no power to change their family situation will be left without help when enduring abuse pre-separation. It was disappointing to see that therapeutic care for child survivors only for those who have faced Child Sexual Abuse not Domestic Abuse. It is good to see Operation Encompass be rolled out as a statutory process, but police notifications to schools will only help if this results in real targeted specialist support available every time.
I would have liked to see a focus on the gendered impacts of child DVA specifically for boys given the higher risks of perpetration they face. The Government did publish a ‘Men and Boys Exploratory Note’ which explicitly tackled boys and men. It was great to see that this looked at harmful values about masculinity impact on male victims of abuse. Let’s hope there is a more detailed discussion on masculinity and boy child survivors of male violence in the ‘National Summit on Men and Boys’ in 2026.
In the first instance, responsibility for male violence lies with adult men, not boys. The VAWG strategy includes a raft of expanded approaches to tackle perpetration, which is welcome. Yet these are situated heavily within the criminal justice system remit. This is the sharp end of perpetration. We suspect most victims don’t call the police, particularly racialised and marginalised survivors. A carceral approach can only get us so far.
Boys grow up in a culture shaped by men: fathers, role models (Trump anyone?!), and male-owned tech companies profiting from misogynistic content. Educating boys while ignoring the adult men creating and distributing harmful material is unjust. This strategy looks at online harms which is very welcome.
If we want real change, we need a strategy that holds men accountable, supports child survivors, and creates space for boys to explore identities beyond rigid masculinity. This strategy is aiming to pull on these threads. We need to get boys on board with seeing the harms Andrew Tate and co cause them as well as us. We need to stand on the same side against male violence.
Notes
* I have written about this in the new preface of my first book which is coming out in paperback in February 2026, pre-order here.
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