16 Days of Activism to Educate Against Rape
Why #EducateAgainstRape?
62% of students have experienced sexual violence at university (Revolt Sexual Assault & The Student Room)
53% of students who experienced unwanted sexual behaviour said it was from another student (Brook)
Only 4% of students who experience serious sexual assault report it to their university (NUS)
To receive an education free from the experience of gender inequality and the threat of sexual violence is a basic human right. It is the pervasive culture of sexual harassment and assault within educational institutions that prevents this basic human right from being fulfilled. Rape culture enables the normalisation of sexual harassment and violence and creates a culture whereby the focus is shifted from the perpetrators to the survivors who are blamed and silenced. Despite the proliferation of rape culture within educational institutions, particularly UK universities, there is a lack of understanding around what it is, why it exists and how we can tackle it.
At Bold Voices we work with young people who are about to leave school or college to educate them on issues of consent, sexual assault and rape culture at university. We aim to equip them with the knowledge and critical understanding that will enable them to tackle this culture on arriving at university. This is education that is rarely given and whilst as a society we prepare young people to study at degree level, do their own washing, cook for themselves and live independently, we fail to prepare them for the experiences of gendered violence they are likely to be affected by. The majority of students continue to arrive at university with little or no knowledge of what rape culture is and how it manifests itself. The impact of this is, not only high rates of sexual assault and harassment, but the fact that young people are not aware of how they may be inadvertently contributing to a rape culture through their beliefs, actions and language.
We wanted to find out a bit more about what education young people had received, so during the 16 Days of Activism to End Violence Against Women and Girls we ran the #EducateAgainstRape campaign. Each day we posted new articles, reports, documentaries and book recommendations across our social media platforms. Including an excellent read that highlights the gap between the wider societal fight to end sexual assault and harassment and that of the younger generation by Hannah Ewen, The #MeToo Movement Impacted Gen Z. But Not How You Might Think.
We also attended events and spoke to students at University of Bristol and King’s College London to spread the word and hear from them about rape culture education. We began the 16 Days of Activism at the Bristol Reclaim the Night march on Sunday 24th November. A moving evening that inspired and galvanised us - sending us into the 16 Days of Activism with chants of “Women united will never be defeated!” ringing in our ears. Most crucially for the campaign, we asked university students to fill out a survey about what education they had received on rape culture. The key findings were revealing and confirmed what we’d heard from individuals; that education around rape culture is severely lacking and that there is need for educational institutions to be doing more to tackle this issue.
The most important finding for us was discovering where young people were getting their information from. Over 70% of survey respondents said that they did not receive any kind of formal education about rape culture before arriving at university. Instead, the most common source of education was social media. Social media, particularly in the past few years since the #MeToo movement, has been an invaluable tool for the movement against sexual and gender based violence. It has provided a space for survivors to speak out, to find community and to feel heard. However, social media should never replace proper education for young people. It can be difficult to find nuanced thought or effective debate and we tend to find that our online personas exist within a “bubble” of others who think the same way as we do. There is certainly a valuable space for social media in this fight, however alongside information being disseminated online young people should be given education and spaces from which to discuss, learn and formulate their own opinions about issues.
In the fight to end gender inequality and sexual violence there are hugely important interventions taking place, activists calling for change and organisations providing vital services. Yet the rates that young people are experiencing gendered violence at school, college, and particularly university, persist. Eradicating rape culture is no easy feat but it begins with critical, nuanced and informed education.
For more of our findings from the #EducateAgainstRape survey please take a look at our report below and share it widely!