1. Ending Violence Against Women Students
Violence and harassment are endemic in society and on campus.
Hidden Marks showed us that 1 in 7 women students will experience serious sexual or physical assault during their time as a student.
We want to work together to end violence against women (VAW) by:
- developing a model cross institutional policy on VAW;
- developing the Zero Tolerance campaign to tackle harassment off campus;
- continue to support Reclaim the Night marches and Slutwalks and support local groups to run their own;
- hold a national day of action against closures of local VAW services;
- campaign for women students to have access to funding for refuge provision.
2. Fighting Cuts
The vast swath of public sector cuts are having an adverse effect on women.
From the courses women study being slashed to regressive measures forcing women back into the home, the loss of vital services putting their lives at risk.
Across HE and FE women are barring the bunt of the government’s dangerous economic agenda
We’ll lead the fight back by:
- fight against cuts and privatisation alongside our trade union colleagues;
- carry out a ground-breaking piece of research on women and the informal economy and discovering the real impact cuts are having on women students;
- ensure NUS’ priority campaign recognises the disproportionate impact of the government’s education policy on women;
- create an online campaign hub with resources for activists including campaign toolkits and briefings on the gendered impact of cuts;
- empower local women’s groups to take action and link them with other local groups – supporting them in their work not dictating what they campaign on.
3. Improving Women’s Representation
Women are currently chronically under represented in our students' unions and in NUS.
Only 22% of students' union presidents are women and the fight for equality is being undermined by men’s officers.
NUS Women’s Campaign will:
- run more and better training events to create more feminist activists;
- revive the women’s officer in every union campaign;
- increase the I WILL training programme and broaden it to support more women running in NUS;
- work with other liberation campaigns to increase the presence of Black, LGBT and disabled women in our movement;
- make sure empowering women is at the heart of NUS’ summer training.
