A CONSULTATION on gender-based equality will be launched by the city council early next year to help tackle violence against women.

The decision was announced at Thursday’s full council meeting following a question by Labour councillor Saqib Ahmed who wanted to know how council partnerships would review the equality impact assessments to embed a gendered approach to social and economic recovery of the city.

SNP councillor Jennifer Layden agreed that it had been clear throughout the pandemic that inequality based on gender intersects with other sectors of inequality including race, disability and social economic status.

She said: “The council is required to publish a new set of equality outcomes by April 2021 and this work continues to develop the updated outcomes. We will be consulting on this widely throughout January before coming to committee next year.

“This provides us with the opportunity to address gender impacts along with our other assessments. Glasgow Violence Against Women partnership are doing vital work within the city to tackle violence against women.

“We have such a strong partnership in Glasgow including Police Scotland, the third sector and housing associations who have offered a critical lifeline to many women in the city during the pandemic.

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“It is clear for all of us that the 16 days highlights the real impact of violence against women and the role we must play in stopping it but it also provides us with an opportunity to reach out to women to let them know they are not alone and help exists.

“While some of our services have moved online, they are still available to any woman who is experiencing gender-based violence.”

16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence is an international campaign to challenge violence against women and girls. The campaign runs every year from November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, to December 10, Human Rights Day.

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Councillor Ahmed responded: “We can all agree that the 16 days of Action against Gender-Based Violence is an important global campaign that we can all support.

“Gender inequality remains at the heart of this. Can the city administration update the chamber on the proactive steps they will take to mitigate gender inequality resulting from the pandemic?”

It was confirmed that this was at the heart of the recovery taskforce and partnership have produced an updated strategy to take this forward.