SILENCED WOMEN AND THE LAW: A GLOBAL SCANDAL

● According to the United Nations, in 2021, 43 countries still didn’t have legislation criminalising marital rape, while 20 countries still permit a man to escape criminal prosecution for rape if he marries his victim.

● UN Women says that violence against women and girls is the most prevalent human rights violation in the world, suffered by one in three women, and a problem that disproportionately affects women of colour, First Nations women and those with disability – who are each far more likely to face abuse.

● When a woman is asked to sign an NDA as part of a settlement over sexual assault or abuse allegations, it doesn’t just stop her speaking to the media – she is also unable to talk about her experience with her family, friends and sometimes even her therapist.

● In the UK between 2017 and 2019, British universities spent more than £90 million on settlements, which included at least one NDA related to sexual assault. The House of Commons uses NDAS in settlements with former staff.

● A false accusation of rape from a woman is an objectively unusual event – like, for example, a plane crash – that occupies an outsized place in the public imagination. In the UK, only 0.23 per cent of rape reports led to a false arrest, and only 0.07 per cent of rape reports led to a man being falsely charged with rape.

● In the UK, fewer than 40 per cent of practising barristers are women. Judges are typically selected from King’s Counsels, but only 18 per cent of these are women. In the UK The Bar Council has warned that at this rate, women will never take silk (become King’s Counsels) in equal numbers to men, which does not bode well for gender parity either at the bar or on the bench.

How Many More Women? by jennifer Robinson and Keina Yoshida will be published on 2 February by Endeavour, £20*