At one point or another, most feminists have been informed that “Actually, women have never had it so good.” While there's truth to that statement – most of us aren't the literal property of our husbands anymore – true gender equality still feels far away.
The fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022 serves as a painful reminder that our freedoms are hard-fought and easily lost. Earlier this year, a woman in England was imprisoned for illegally inducing an abortion during lockdown. While her sentence has since been suspended, it's still extremely worrying that abortion is criminalised at all in the UK – not to mention that religious zealots are still protesting outside abortion clinics thanks to the new laws around buffer zones not being enforced.
It feels as though every day, the headlines are dominated by the names of women and girls lost to male violence. Counting Dead Women reports that 87 UK women and girls aged 13 and over have been killed in circumstances in which a man or men are the primary suspects, including Emma Pattison and her daughter Lettie, Elianne Andam, and Grace O’Malley-Kumar. Two teenagers are also currently on trial for the murder of Brianna Ghey, a sixteen-year-old girl who was stabbed 28 times earlier this year, a court has heard.
Beyond the UK, women's safety is under constant threat. Armita Geravand, a 16-year-old girl, died after an altercation with Iran's ‘morality police’; women have been forced almost entirely out of public life under Taliban-ruled Afghanistan; and there have been eyewitness accounts of rape being used as a weapon of war during the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – as well as pregnant women and newborns bearing the brunt of Israel's bombardment of Gaza.
The world won't magically become a safer place for women overnight – nor in the course of a whole year. But in 2024, we must galvanise the fight for gender equality worldwide. To help visualise how this may look, GLAMOUR spoke to 11 of our feminist heroes – including legal scholars, activists, and charity workers – about all the causes we must fight for in the new year.
1. Reproductive justice
Clare Murphy, BPAS Chief Executive: “As we have watched with horror at the reverberation the reversal of Roe v Wade has had on abortion care in the United States in 2023, our hope is that 2024 is the year of the fight back. With elections being held in both the United States and over here in the United Kingdom in 2024 – now, more than ever, the fight for reproductive rights must take centre stage.
“BPAS is proud to support Dame Diana Johnson’s amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill, which looks to end prison time for women who end their pregnancies. MPs will be asked to vote on this amendment in February, and we urge everyone to join us in calling for MPs to do the right thing and vote to end the threat of prison time for women seeking an abortion. Because if we don’t act now, more and more women will continue to be subjected to years-long investigations, criminal charges, and prison sentences for ending their own pregnancies.
"So in 2024, we will fight back. Because we owe it to our women.”
France is set to enshrine a woman’s right to an abortion in its constitution.
2. Urgent action on deepfake pornography
Professor Clare McGlynn KC (Hon), law professor and expert on violence against women and girls: “It is now clear that we are facing an epidemic of deepfake porn – where AI is used to superimpose images of women and girls into pornographic videos without their consent.
“This technology is now so easy to use that all women and girls are living with the ever-present threat of deepfake porn being made and shared without our agreement. But we can reduce this threat. Type ‘deepfake porn’ into Google, and it immediately brings up websites dedicated to this form of abuse. The most popular website gets 14 million hits a month. In 2024, I want to see Google and other search engines downranking these websites, making it that bit harder to create and share deepfake porn.”
3. Better representation for disabled women
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Rachel Charlton-Dailey, journalist, author, and activist: “I'd love to see more done to better represent disabled women in work, society and media. Disabled women deserve to have our stories told and believed in the media in authentic ways that don't paint us as fakers, tragic or inspirational. We deserve to safely live our lives without fear of harassment, abuse or losing our benefits. To do that, we need to press regulators to create guidelines for reporting on disability.”
4. More investment in women's sport
Beth Mead, England and Arsenal Women footballer: “2023 has been another huge year in the growth of women’s sport; the Women’s World Cup has shown that what we sparked during the Euros in 2022 can be replicated across the globe. I’m an ambassador for the McDonald’s Fun Football programme, and it is the backing of big brands investing into women’s and girls’ sport that is vital to its growth. Girls statistically don’t travel as far for football in the same way boys do, and that’s why the increase of accessibility at the grassroots level in the UK is key.”
5. Women must be represented at every level of politics
Sharon Gaffka, campaigner: "Many a troll might ask ‘why do women need equal representation?’
“To that, I say…the news cycles are dominated by gender-based violence and police brutality. A string of ‘Pestminster’ scandals and that maternity services are the leading cause of hospital admissions in England, yet the government's pregnancy loss review in July 2023 yielded 73 recommendations, signalling a long-overdue acknowledgement of service and gender that has been ignored for too long.
“As we approach 2024, women aspire to witness a surge in female representation, shaping a parliamentary agenda that resonates with the diverse needs of the female population. Let 2024 be the year where women's concerns form the bedrock of political discourse.”
6. Climate justice
Mikaela Loach, author and activist: "The climate crisis has seemed like an issue that is both too big and too overwhelming for most people, so many have chosen to respond with doom or fear rather than action. 2024 will be the year where that changes.
“There have already been huge shifts in public perception around the climate crisis: from even choosing to name it as a “crisis” to understanding that we need to end all new oil and gas fields - and that we can have cheaper, more reliable and cleaner energy without them. The next shift that will build even more in 2024 is seeing that climate action rooted in principles of climate justice can actually make a better world for us all. This understanding that we have the opportunity to transform the world, not just preserve or maintain it with its inbuilt oppression, will excite millions more into going from just caring about this crisis – or just been scared of it – into actively participating in movements to not only tackle it, but to build a better future for us all.”
7. Action on male violence against women
Ellen Miller, Interim CEO of Refuge: “Going into 2024, a year where it is likely that we will see a General Election, there are some actions and commitments that both society and any potential future government needs to take to ensure that women and girls are safe from abuse and harm.
“Conversations around violence against women and girls need to continue to be amplified, so that awareness of this misogynistic form of abuse is raised, toxic attitudes to VAWG can be challenged and positive change can take place.
“We need to see funding commitments for specialist domestic abuse services, from the current and any potential future governments so that women and girls who have experienced abuse can be properly supported to rebuild their lives. Decades of chronic underfunding in the sector, and the cost-of-living crisis, have meant that proper sustainable funding is desperately needed.”
Violence against women and girls is not inevitable.
8. Transgender women's safety
Charlie Craggs, actress and activist: “There has been a very strategic PR campaign in the media and on social media to rebrand transgender people from the bullied to the bully – all while we continue to be bullied. We are not a danger; we are *in* danger. I pray 2024 is the year people start to realise this before things get even worse.”
9. Legal reform
Dr Charlotte Proudman: "As a barrister representing survivors of violence, I want to pay tribute to their bravery in speaking out about their experiences of the justice system; many women describe being treated like criminals rather than victims, whilst others describe the trial as worse than the violence they suffered.
"Life is not much better for barristers who fight for the rights of women. I, like many other women and marginalised barristers, have suffered systemic bullying by colleagues for speaking out about injustice and misogyny. The Bar Council published a report showing that 44% of those who replied to a survey had witnessed or experienced bullying.
“As we step into the new year, it’s our collective duty to advocate for change. I want to see everyone in the justice system unwaveringly supported and protected. Let’s resolve to champion a legal system that reveres diversity, equality and a fundamental right to speak truth to power in 2024.”
10. Take maternal rights seriously
Joeli Brearley, CEO and founder of Pregnant Then Screwed: "In 2024, we finally want to see the government take the rights of mothers seriously. From pregnancy and maternity discrimination, which impacts three-quarters of mothers, to a lack of affordable and high-quality childcare, to a parental leave system which reinforces the notion that it is a woman’s job to do the caring.
“It is high time legislation supported a woman’s right to have children and a career, should she so wish. We, therefore, want to see an increase in properly paid paternity leave, funding for nurseries and childminders that will enable them to provide high-quality education and care, and all jobs to be advertised as flexible unless there is a good business reason not to do so, for non-disclosure agreements to be unenforceable in cases of discrimination, and finally an extension to the time limit to raise a tribunal claim so that women have more chance of accessing the justice they deserve.”
11. Peace for all women impacted by war
Niki Ignatiou, Senior Humanitarian Policy and Research Specialist at ActionAid UK: “In a year where we’ve witnessed a sharp increase in violent and acute conflicts across the world, we’ve lost sight of the sheer trauma women and girls are facing every single day. With more than 600 million women and girls living in conflict-affected countries, we are failing whole generations of women and the communities they are helping to keep on their feet. Widespread human rights abuses are being witnessed in the ongoing war in Ukraine, in conflicts in Sudan, the DRC, and with the escalation of violence in Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel, it’s clear that in 2024 far more needs to be done to protect women’s rights and their safety.”
For more from Glamour UK's Lucy Morgan, follow her on Instagram @lucyalexxandra.
