Extreme misogyny will be treated as a form of extremism under new government plans, the Home Office has said after it commissioned a rapid review of the UK’s counter-extremism strategy to determine how best to tackle threats posed by harmful ideologies. It is expected to be completed by October.

Officials will assess the rise of Islamist and far-right extremism alongside ideological trends that have gained traction including extreme misogyny after figures show that one in five women have experienced online harassment, abuse (including cyberstalking), sexual harassment, doxxing and rape threats. 

The proposed review will assess the ideological spectrum and is intended to address gaps in the current system that leave the country exposed to hateful or harmful activity that promotes violence or undermines democracy. 

It will also look at the causes and conduct of the radicalisation of young people, such as incel culture and digital misogyny, which have been steadily on the rise in recent years due to the popularity of influencers like Andrew Tate. 

Dr Kim Barker, a senior lecturer in law at the Open University and a director at Europe’s Observatory on Online Violence Against Women previously told Stylist: “Misogyny in both on and offline forms is on the rise in large part due to the way in which algorithms on social platforms operate.”  

“There is, like it or not, value in keeping people interested in violent, extreme and unpleasant content online. It works for platforms to keep people’s attention – recommended and promoted content drives traffic to particular influencers or content.”     

Despite calls from campaigners to make misogyny a hate crime in 2021 as part of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, the Law Commission had then concluded that it may be “more harmful than helpful, both to victims of violence against women and girls, and also to efforts to tackle hate crime more broadly”.

Responding to the most recent news, Refuge’s Ikram Dahman told Stylist: “We welcome the news that the Government is for the first time considering including extreme misogyny within the counter-extremism strategy, putting it on a par with extreme racial and religious ideology and terrorism. Refuge has long campaigned for misogyny to be treated as a hate crime and for the devastating, dangerous and long-lasting impacts it has on women and girls to be taken seriously. We eagerly await the detail on how these plans will be rolled out but recognising misogyny at the root of violence against women and girls is key to both preventing and tackling these crimes.

“For many years there has been increased rhetoric around tackling violence against women and girls, but this needs to be accompanied by concrete actions. The government’s swiftness to act in response to the recent riots, demonstrates the state’s ability to tackle extremism. A genuine commitment to treating extreme misogyny in the same way must recognise the scale of the problem and allocate the funding, resources and training to match.” 

Images: Getty