- Conference
- 2018 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 27 September 2017
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
Misogyny and hate crime is on the increase in society. In 2016 Nottinghamshire police were the first force to re-classify wolf whistling, cat calling and other misogynistic harassment as hate crime and handled 30 cases in 5 months.
Following on from that 15 other police forces are now looking at following Nottinghamshire Police’s lead.
In the past, women have accepted such behaviour because it has been trivialised in society.
But the Equality Act 2010 defines bullying and harassment as behaviour that makes someone feel intimidated or offended – which is both the intention and the impact of incidents of misogynistic harassment.
Conference believes that the continued trivialisation of such behaviour is unacceptable and we therefore call upon the national women’s committee to work with other appropriate bodies to:-
• produce guidance on misogyny and hate crime, including working with UNISON Learning and Organising Services to produce training materials that can be used to educate activists and members;
• work with appropriate bodies to produce a UNISON draft workplace policy on misogyny and hate crime, for use in branches in negotiating such a policy with employers;
• raise awareness and understanding among our members of how to report misogyny and hate crimes in the workplace and society.