Sexism in the UK is more pervasive and "in your face" than other countries, a United Nations investigator has claimed.
UN special rapporteur on violence against women Rashida Manjoo said after visiting a number of cities, including Glasgow and Edinburgh, she found a "boys' club sexist culture." in Britain and said this influences perceptions of women and girls.
Ms Manjoo also warned Government cutbacks have hit violence-against-women services and confirmed reports she was blocked from entering controversial immigration detention centre for women, Yarl's Wood.
The South African human rights expert said legal and policy responses focused on harmful practices, such as early and forced marriages but ignored harm coming from a "a sexist culture that exists in the country".
She added: "Have I seen this level of sexist culture in other countries? It hasn't been so 'in your face' in other countries.
"I haven't seen that so pervasively in other countries. I'm sure it exists but it wasn't so much and so pervasive. I'm not sure what gives rise to a more visible presence of sexist portrayals of women and girls in this country in particular.
"What is clear from these indications of portrayals of women and girls is that there is a boys' club sexist culture"
Ms Manjoo said she had identified "isolated pockets of good practice", but these were still not practised consistently. She said many groups had raised the impact of austerity measures, adding that cuts were having a "disproportionate impact" on the provision of violence-against-women services.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article