New feature: Stopping violence against women at its primary root

Matthew Provost draws the connections between male violence against women and bullying in the playground

Mention the words violence against women and most will immediately think of an example involving adults. If children are mentioned at all, it will be either as a worry over how they are affected by any violence between adults, as the victims of violence from an adult, or in a discussion about how to prevent those children becoming violent in later life.

But there is one other area of violence against women that involves children and which is often overlooked; and we must class it as violence against women, for it is as serious as rape, street harassment or any other form. The issue is bullying in schools.

A quick search of the internet or look at a range of anti-bullying materials will show plenty of resources for tackling bullying in general, or, more specifically, for tackling racist or homophobic bullying. But what will also be found is a lack of materials aimed at that bullying which is inflicted upon young girls by young boys.

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