Friday 10 June 2022 11:31 PM Top police officer says rooting out sexism is like confronting terrorism trends now
The country's top police officer tasked with combatting violence against women and girls has likened rooting out the epidemic of sexism to the challenge of confronting terrorism after the 7/7 suicide bomb attacks.
In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth, who was last year appointed as the National Police Lead for Violence Against Women and Girls, said it will take until the end of the decade to solve Britain's sexism crisis.
Reflecting on how the public was asked to help tackle Islamic terrorism after 9/11, she said: 'I talk to the senior policing officers behind the setting up of counter-terror nationally and going back to similar parallels 12 to 15 years ago and the big thing for me was the public campaign.
In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth, who was last year appointed as the National Police Lead for Violence Against Women and Girls, said it will take until the end of the decade to solve Britain's sexism crisis
'You can put all the resourcing and focus you want to solve it, but it's the public campaign that makes the difference. The work with counter-terror, making the public aware of the threat, we now need to do with VAWG.'
She added: 'I don't think we are going to change some of these really embedded societal issues overnight and I think we need to be really honest about that,' she said.
'I'm looking at over this year making some real changes around how police forces tackle VAWG [violence against women and girls] but in the context of change during the whole of this decade.
'I think it's a once in a lifetime opportunity we have now to tackle violence against women and girls and certainly in my career and lifetime it feels like there are opportunities for change.
'I would liken it to some of the things I've seen in my lifetime like smoking, seat belts, drink-driving. Those have been campaigns. They have been approaches to changing how the public think which take the years.
'We're then moving into a decade where you look back and think, "My goodness is that how people used to behave and think?". I think we're in one of those moments in society in a way I've not seen in my career.'
The country's top police officer tasked with combatting violence against women and girls has likened rooting out the epidemic of sexism to the challenge of confronting terrorism after the 7/7 suicide bomb
