Women on the move

Cheers to a New Life! – Think Happy!

Every year the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (25^th November) is linked to International Human Rights Day (10^th December) via the internationally-recognised “16 days of activism”.

It’s a tough reminder of the extent of violence against women – and the ongoing struggle for women’s rights as human rights.

During these 16 days it can be painful to be thinking about the level of abuse and violence, and the consequences for each woman, and for society as a whole.

We can feel overwhelmed.

So it’s vital also to see these days as days of activism against abuse and inequality – and to focus on the positives and the achievements.

As part of this project on women’s journeys away from abuse, women took part in participatory photography groupwork in London. Over weekly sessions, participants used their photography and captions to communicate their experiences, producing images, maps and collages for themselves, for the group, for display in women’s services, and for wider presentation through the research.

One of the strongest messages they wanted to share – amongst themselves and to wider audiences – was their positive experiences of escaping abuse.

Women shared images of celebrating a new start, of what made them happy, and photographs of inspiring signs they saw:

Time to be wise
Think Happy
Today is your lucky day

This short video shows some of their images of positive messages to encourage other women escaping abuse.

Here There and Everywhere

However much women try to stay put and stay safe from domestic abuse, the threat of the abuser often means that they have to relocate. They are forced into journeys of escape – whether to friends or family, or to an unknown place.

Anywhere they can find some safety.

Women use all kinds of forms of transport in their journeys – they may be hiding in plain sight amongst everyone else on public transport, or in their own car, trying to concentrate on the route and fearful of the destination.

As part of this project on women’s journeys, participatory photography was carried out with groups of women in three areas of London: two groups in women’s refuges where women would soon be on the move again, and one at a women’s centre with women who were beginning to resettle. Over weekly sessions, participants used their photography and captions to communicate their experiences, producing images, maps and collages for themselves, for the group, for display in women’s services, and for wider presentation through the research.

This short video shows some of their images of different means of transport, and different signposts on the way.

Images and captions by women on the move due to domestic abuse show their experiences and insights on ‘Transport yourself to a better place’
© Amy, Carol, Cordelia, Daisy, Lucy, Marilyn, Sarah, Shalom/Solace Women’s Aid/Janet Bowstead

Cordelia had come to London to escape abuse, and saw the plentiful public transport as a positive way of feeling in control – of starting to settle in a new place. She said,

“When I first came to London I used to – because I didn’t know the area – I’d just get on any bus and travel around so that I could learn the city.”

A message she spotted on the side of a bus became a message for her life – used as the title of the video:

“Transport yourself to a better place. I just really liked the message because that’s what a lot of us do. I kind of like, you know, I’ve always transported myself – Here There and Everywhere.”

Amy highlighted the signs and signposts on her travels around London, like the contrast between a way seeming to be blocked – “No Exit” – and a positive route forward – “Way Out”.

She said, “I was thinking about how much I hid for so long and didn’t signal anything”, but that now she had received support from a women’s centre as a way out of the violence and abuse.

Maps and signposts – like the London A-Z, and arrows and finger posts – are welcomed as a positive help – and an opportunity. As Daisy said:

“We have a signpost! Any way you want to go!”

Serious Games – Journeyscape or Journeybreak?

The women’s journeys card game developed as part of this research will be played in a workshop session this Friday at an international geography conference. Players will attempt to navigate journey stages and distances away from abuse, towards settled accommodation in a safe location. On the way, they will face the ‘chance’ elements that can allow them to leap forward or fall back on their journey.

It is part of a session on “Serious Games” at the RGS-IBG Conference in London.

“Serious games” use the interactions and norms of games – from playing cards or board games to online gaming – to engage and inform in ways that other methods cannot. They may be used in policy contexts to involve decision-makers in addressing problems, in practice contexts to encourage professionals to deepen their understanding and in teaching contexts to generate insights and empathy.

They are still games: fun and entertainment, even competitiveness, are important, but the games also address serious issues and aim to achieve real world outcomes. The goal is not the game itself, but the discussion and potential action that follow.

Serious Games are used to involve participants in thinking about a wide range of difficult issues: examples can be found from migration, to health, to forestry.

Games in the session address a wide range of geographical issues from mapping flood recovery to tackling racist narratives and hateful messages, from mapping journeys for women escaping domestic violence to system mapping future access to fruit and vegetables, and to mapping journeys in the USA to access abortion.

Serious and difficult topics – and the workshop provides the opportunity for manageable debates and respectful interactions by using the method of “Serious Games”.

What can employers do (including about the abusers)?

Relocation disrupts so many aspects of anyone’s life.

Even if it’s a chosen and planned relocation, there will be changes and admin: things you can no longer access, as well as positive new opportunities.

Forced relocation – when the only way to escape domestic abuse is to uproot your life and go away – is usually massively disruptive… in terms of leaving behind or losing friends, possessions, college, work, school, hopes and dreams….

Work is a big factor for many women – whether they can be honest with their employer, whether they can expect any help or understanding. Large employers may be able to arrange transfers and support, so that a woman can retain or resume her career once she is in a safer place away from the abuse. All employers can do something to support – to reduce the risks from the abuser, and to reduce the losses and costs.

This has long been recognised by some employers, and is increasingly championed by organisations such as the Employers’ Initiative on Domestic Abuse (EIDA), which is free to join for all employers prepared to take effective action on domestic abuse.

This builds on decades of work by some employers, but patchy responses by others.

And it is notable that the focus seems to be primarily on what employers can do to “care for employees affected by domestic abuse”.

This is all well and good… but perpetrators are employees too. What are employers doing about perpetrators?

Often not enough.

EIDA talks about “providing education and support to help perpetrators of domestic abuse to stop” – but employers could often be more proactive about identifying perpetrators in their employ, taking action, and actively creating a culture where the attitudes behind such abusive behaviour are simply not acceptable. The most recent government report in 2021 found that whilst 66% of the employers who responded had a company policy on domestic abuse, only 20% addressed perpetrators.

Employers have had policy, procedure and guidance on responding to domestic violence and abuse for decades – but there’s still a lot that could be improved. An early example – from London Borough of Greenwich in 1997 – does give significant focus to the employer’s role towards perpetrators (not just victim-survivors). It offers guidance on assessing relevance and appropriateness of job duties, considering misuse of access to information, and issues of bringing the employer into disrepute.

Re-reading the guidance 27 years on highlights how many more recent employers’ initiatives still don’t focus enough on the cause of the problem: the abusers.

Time to be wise – Think Happy

Women in the creative groupwork for this research produced images and captions –messages for other women they imagined making domestic violence journeys in the future – wanting to encourage and inspire them in their journeys from abuse to freedom.

Many of their images were of slogans and messages they spotted – that spoke to them.

They might be in the middle of difficulties and uncertainties – but sometimes a positive message they spotted cheered them up.

And they wanted to share the images – to help other women in their progress on their journeys away from violence and abuse: and towards freedom.

Time to be wise. © Daisy/Solace Women’s Aid/Janet Bowstead

Think Happy. © Marilyn/Solace Women’s Aid/Janet Bowstead

Many more images and captions are in the report from this research.

Steps forward to a better life

A picture can tell a powerful story – a way for women’s voices to be heard.

Their journeys had often been long – difficult – and they faced further relocation and uncertain futures.

Many of the image stories were about the small steps – but also about the sense of progress.

Sarah celebrated her new life with her two sons – safe away from the abuser – and recognised the steps forward they were taking. She emphasised that it was not just a new life…. but a better life for them all.

Steps forward to a better life, full of love, wealth and smiles all round

Many more images and captions are in the report from this research.

You can’t walk over us no more

Women in the creative groupwork for this research produced images and captions for other women they imagined making domestic violence journeys in the future – wanting to encourage and inspire them in their journeys from abuse to freedom.

Sarah celebrated her life with her two sons – safe away from the abuser.

When four becomes three!

She poignantly and powerfully combined her and her sons’ hands and shoes – showing how strong they were together now.

© Sarah/Solace Women’s Aid/Janet Bowstead

Her message to the abuser was:

You can’t walk over us no more

Her message to herself and her sons was:

We’re in power because 3 Beats 1

A picture can tell a powerful story – a way for women’s voices to be heard. Many more images and captions are in the report from this research.

Local elections – what is local about domestic violence?

As we approach local elections in England and Wales on 2^nd May 2024, local and national politicians are setting the priorities for local authorities: for the funding they receive and spend – and the services they spend it on.

Where are responses to domestic violence and abuse in these priorities?

With many local authorities struggling to cover their statutory duties, such as social care and child protection, and facing loud criticism over bin collections and potholes, where do domestic abuse services fit into their plans?

These plans matter – from advice and information services, to specialist refuges and accommodation: all these are services that national government has devolved to local decision-making.

But domestic violence and abuse isn’t local. Not only are men violent and abusive to their women partners in every local authority in the country… but, to escape that threat, many women and children cross local authority boundaries to seek help and support – as well as safety.

The maps show the domestic violence journeys in one year to services for just five cities, as women (often with children) travel to or from Manchester, Newcastle, Plymouth, Southampton and Birmingham. They show women having to leave their local authority to get the help they need.

One year of domestic violence journeys to and from Manchester to services

One year of domestic violence journeys to and from Newcastle upon Tyne to services

One year of domestic violence journeys to and from Plymouth to services

One year of domestic violence journeys to and from Southampton to services

One year of domestic violence journeys to and from Birmingham to services

But women and children can only make such journeys if the services exist.

Local politicians may pledge to fund – or to cut funds to – domestic violence services, as part of seeking votes in the May elections. It’s a patchwork of separate – unconnected – decisions. And decisions that do not only affect local voters – but affect the tens of thousands of women and children who end up needing services somewhere else – not in their original local area.

It’s an ongoing mismatch between the scale of need and the scale of response – further cemented in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021.

We need services everywhere, because perpetrators are abusive to their partners or ex-partners everywhere; but we need a network across the whole country – not at risk from hundreds of separate local cuts and local priorities.

Do the uncounted not count?

Women on the move due to domestic abuse are often hiding. They shouldn’t have to, of course…

But if not enough is happening to tackle the perpetrator, then women and children frequently have to move away – to try and keep safe. If the authorities will not prevent the abuser threatening her – and if he won’t change – then women uproot themselves and their children and try to disappear.

They may have to keep hidden for months, for years, forever – breaking contact with work, school, friends, family…

And hiding from the perpetrator also keeps them hidden from other aspects of ordinary life. It also means that they slip between the cracks of all kinds of administrative processes – falling off waiting lists, missing crucial appointments, losing their eligibility for services.

They are also uncounted in another way. All the social surveys in the UK sample the settled population – using the Royal Mail’s Postcode Address File – and so this excludes people in insecure, shared, and communal accommodation. Women on the move due to domestic violence may be in temporary accommodation for years – they may never get back to properly settled accommodation.

So the key surveys that are relied upon for prevalence of domestic violence and abuse (the Crime Surveys in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) systematically exclude anyone on the move or in unsettled accommodation. They exclude the people most acutely affected by the domestic abuse that they claim to count.

There was discussion of the problem at the RadStats conference in London on Saturday; and there is some wider acknowledgement – the Inclusive Data Taskforce (IDTF) reported in 2021 on the issue, and the Office for National Statistics has recently published research with 40 women on temporary accommodation due to domestic abuse.

But this doesn’t fill the gaps – there’s nothing more substantial to address the chronically uncounted; and the implications of them being missing from statistics. The supposed prevalence of domestic abuse – measured by the Crime Surveys – is widely reported; but it is barely acknowledged that the figure is potentially badly skewed by the missing women on the move.

And the missing are predominantly women – not only are women more likely to experience domestic violence and abuse, but when men experience domestic violence and abuse they are less likely to relocate and therefore exit the settled population sampling frame. So the prevalence for men and women are differentially skewed – meaning that the figures just cannot be relied upon.

So – from the assumption of only surveying the settled population, comes distorted statistics and significant exclusions.

And it matters – whenever the supposed prevalence of domestic violence and abuse from Crime Surveys is used to assess need, or make decisions about whether to provide services – and services for whom – the basis is flawed… and the decisions are flawed. And the message seems to be that the uncounted – women and children on the move due to domestic abuse – just don’t count…

Safety and More-Than-Safety for women surviving abuse

New research by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has shown again how (unnecessarily) complicated women’s domestic abuse journeys can be. Journeys away from abuse and towards freedom often include all sorts of temporary accommodation – from hotels to women’s refuges, from self-contained flats to shared and supportive communal settings.

The wide range of temporary accommodation may imply options and choice…

However, women survivors experienced barriers to access and a lack of accommodation; as well as lack of information and lack of control of the processes. They didn’t always feel involved in the decisions that affected them and their children; and found themselves trying to navigate complex processes without the support they needed.

Whilst they were escaping violence and looking for safety, they described the importance of both emotional and physical safety – and of more-than-safety that recognised their individual needs and circumstances. They valued accommodation that felt more home-like – less like an impersonal institution – but that offered the holistic “wrap-around” range of practical and emotional support that understood what they and their children had been through.

Not surprisingly, women survivors identified the need for more flexibility and availability of both suitable accommodation and appropriate support.

And for support – rather than pressure – to make decisions. Women have only just come out of the coercion of domestic abuse, where they might not have been ‘allowed’ to make decisions, and then they are often rushed into a journey to a place and a type of accommodation with no time to think. The urgency of a crisis move often sets things in stone – rather a later chance to reconsider, to be heard and respected, and a real range of options to choose from.

Women lost valuable possessions – of themselves and their children – as well as sentimental items, favourite toys, important paperwork, and family pets.

They have survived the domestic abuse – but the current limited and fragmented system of temporary accommodation (and the barriers to accessing what there is) means they have to be survivors again- survivors of complicated journeys to find somewhere truly safe to stay.

One woman survivor who had stayed in a refuge now said:

“All of a sudden, I have the freedom and the space to be, to just be. When we were talking before about safety as well, that’s important to me. The fact that you have the space and the freedom to be; that I feel safe … just being myself.”

ONS 2024 Women and temporary safe accommodation in England – summary Download