7. How does the Welsh Government support White Ribbon Day in relation to eliminating violence against women? OAQ52947

Yes. I've just realised I'm not wearing one, so I apologise for that first of all. To promote the UN’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and White Ribbon Day, we are holding a Facebook live webinar, Ending VAWDASV in Wales; funding four community communication activities; and encouraging more of our male staff to become White Ribbon ambassadors.

Thank you, First Minister. I'm attending the White Ribbon event today, sponsored by Joyce Watson, and will attend the Black Association of Women Step Out's Light a Candle event at Llandaff cathedral next week. As the First Minister is aware, for the past eight years BAWSO has led the Light a Candle multifaith event, bringing together more than 250 individuals to commemorate international White Ribbon Day.

But the horrific statistics still prevail. In Wales and England two women a week are killed by a current or former partner and 10,000 women a week experience sexual abuse. Will the First Minister join me in acknowledging the UN rapporteur Professor Philip Alston's report last week, in which he states that single household payments and delays of five to 12 weeks before universal credit is paid out gives more leverage to a controlling and violent partner? And will he join me today in encouraging the new Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Amber Rudd, to halt universal credit and address this punitive policy that so adversely affects women facing violence and sexual abuse?

Yes. She will see that, as if by magic, I now have a white ribbon attached. But she raises a hugely important issue and can I commend her as well for all the work that she's done in raising awareness and in combating violence against women over the years? We of course condemn all forms of abuse and violence. We work with specialist violence against women services in Wales to raise awareness of violence against women. And, of course, we support third sector organisations to deliver direct service provision to support and protect victims. It also supports preventative work—hugely important and of course that formed part of the legislation we passed a few years ago. Much work has been done to raise the issue of domestic violence to make it more visible in the public mind, but there is still work to be done in order to prevent physical and mental abuse and, sadly, those deaths that she mentioned. 

First Minister, there's always more that can be done and I recognise totally the commitment of the Welsh Government to this issue, and indeed the commitment of most of the parties in this Chamber to the fact that too many women, too many young girls, too many teenagers are being beaten up. I have two particular bugbears and I would like to know what you think you as a Government, and we as an Assembly, could do to try to alleviate this. 

The first is the endlessly grim storylines of dramas, thrillers, soaps and films, where almost all of the victims are women, all young girls, all teenagers, who are constantly the ones being beaten up, being threatened, being violated, being raped and being killed in horrific ways. And it sends out a pernicious message that actually that's what happens to women, and it isn't acceptable.

And my other big bugbear is with the, at times, asinine judiciary system that says because a 17-year-old is wearing a pair of lacy knickers, 'Hey, it's okay to go and rape her.' These are terrible and until we stop this, this story of victimhood and fear will transmit all around our young girls.

And I have two teenage daughters and I resent them growing up in this culture that they have to take changes, they have to wear the dark clothes, they have to not be bright and sparkly in case some guy comes along and says, 'Oh, I'll 'ave a bit of that.' And, of course, it sends out the wrong message to our boys, because they're not bad, but there's a casualness, there's that, sort of, 'Hey, it's okay, everybody does it, let's do it.' So, the media, and I don't mean newspapers per se—I'm talking about the entertainment industry; what a great word, 'entertainment'—and the judiciary have got to get real, and they are a real part of the jigsaw puzzle to stop us having to constantly campaign to protect our women, our teenagers and our girls, and it's disgraceful.

I don't think I can add much to what the Member has said. She puts it so powerfully herself. When she mentioned the fact that women and young girls are particularly portrayed as victims, I started to rack my mind as to some of the programmes that I've seen recently, and she's right. I hadn't actually spotted it, so I'm grateful to her for raising that issue, and she's absolutely right that the promotion of victimhood encourages people to make people victims, and I think that is certainly a strong issue there and it's something that I think will need to be examined in the future.

Secondly, she's partially right, I think, to say that about the judiciary. I think that, in their defence, younger judges particularly are very well aware of the world around them and, of course, what is appropriate to say and what is not appropriate to say. I think that, certainly, when I was in practice, some of the older judges at that time perhaps were of a different era. But the judges that I know would be very, very much aware of the need to be sensitive and appropriate, and certainly they wouldn't, I'm sure, say anything like that in a summing up.

But I do wonder whether we've gone backwards. I do, because it seemed until quite recently that the issue of gender equality and the issue of respect were something that was a never-ending journey towards a more positive outcome. I'm not sure it is. I don't believe that Wales is a safe place for women to come forward with allegations, I have to say, and that is something that we all recognise as political parties, and we all recognise that steps have to be taken with regard to that. So, there's much work to be done. But that work, of course, is driven forward very strongly by the kind of representations that she has made and others in this Chamber have made, and the representation that she has made and those of my friend from the Vale of Glamorgan and others in this Chamber will always be strongly supported by me.

First Minister, there's no doubt in my mind that we've gone backwards on this agenda, and I fully support what's been said by Angela and by Jane Hutt, and I'd like to focus on what you can actually do about this. You could improve education on this front so that every child is absolutely clear what is and what isn't acceptable. You could do something about the welfare benefit system. The fact that this area isn't devolved is something that you could do something about, if you were prepared to take responsibility for welfare benefits. The best way to tackle violence against women would be to ensure that demand for support services is met. Shrinking budgets have meant that this isn't always happening. In 2016-17, the latest statistics available from Women's Aid show that 249 survivors of domestic abuse could not be accommodated by refuges in Wales because there was no space available in the service that was contacted when help was needed. Now, that same report found that there had been an overall loss of up to 5 per cent of funding for the violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence specialist sector in this country.

Apart from launching yet another review, how do you intend to tackle this grim picture and become the feminist Government that you aspire to be?

Well, we have provided, of course, funding to local authorities and third sector organisations for the implementation of the 2015 Act. We fund the Live Fear Free helpline and of course £969,000 of capital funding grant to acquire, maintain or upgrade fixed assets, such as buildings and equipment. But I take the point that what we need to be doing is making sure—well, two things: first of all that there is consistent coverage across Wales of refuges, but also, and I was struck by this when I visited an organisation in Cardiff last week where I talked to women who had horrific stories of what they had been through—the point that they made to me was that you need a safe place to live but you also need help to get your confidence back and help needs to come from people who are familiar, not general counselling but counselling that is specific to that person. So, it's massively important that we take that on board in the future to provide that consistency as well, so that it's not simply a question of, 'Let's move someone to a safe place'—that's important—but 'How can we help that individual who has gone through the most horrific experience to help to rebuild themselves and their lives?' I saw an example of it in Cardiff, and that, I think, will be a challenge for the next Government: how can we make sure that that consistency is achieved?

I want to thank the National Federation of Women's Institutes, who, as an organisation, have really helped to take this message about standing up and calling on men to stand up to never commit, condone or remain silent about violence against women and girls. They reach the parts that others can't, their organisation reaches every aspect of people's lives where they live, and they have a huge part and huge influence in changing this agenda. But one of the things I think that we really need to focus on, and it was brought up this morning, is the gender stereotyping from an early age and the role that the Government can play, and is playing, in doing something about that. It isn't always the case that girls must be girls and boys must be boys. That feeds into actions, sometimes very negative actions, perpetrated on one by the other in later life.

So, I suppose my question to you, First Minister, is that, moving forward, we spread those messages—and I know we already are doing it—more forcefully and more evenly across Wales so that there isn't pressure put to bear on boys behaving in a particular way and girls behaving in a particular way.

Yes. This is reflected, of course, in the This is Me campaign. I don't think we should go, as the Member said, to a situation where boys and girls are expected to behave differently. There should be respect on both sides because that suggests that girls should behave in a specific way—and the Member for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire alluded to this—in order not to put themselves in danger, which is a profoundly offensive position to be in. Why on earth should women be in that position where they feel that they're not able to dress in a particular way or not able to behave in a particular way, otherwise they've brought something on themselves. That clearly is not where we want to be, so it's absolutely right to say that we need to look—and the new curriculum, of course, will be looking at this—at how we promote healthy relationships in schools—that's important—and, of course, to make the point that respect is all around: that when people are out, when they're out at night, that the respect is there for every individual and that nobody should fear being judged or treated in a particular way because of the way they behave or dress.