EP 15. Closing the 12% Gender-Based Violence Gap
Opening reflection Something about the way the 12% is framed, as data, as a metric, as a gap, felt like it was missing the person at the centre of it. This episode is my attempt to put her back there. And to ask what each of us, survivors, supporters, and workplaces, can actually do.
Themes explored in this episode
Theme 1: The dissonance at the heart of the 12% The survivor tax has been described as economic harm, an invisible tax, a long-term income loss. But underneath all the frameworks and metrics is a simpler, harder truth: people are being taxed for surviving someone else's violence. That framing matters. You cannot build a strategy on a framework that positions you as less than you are.
Theme 2: The job share: one move, two and a half days During a court case, managing clinical depression and a full-time role, J'K built a job share from scratch. Researching the scheme, making the case, presenting it to her team leader. It was approved. Two and a half days reclaimed. Not because the system offered it. Because she looked for the lever and pulled it.
Theme 3: What the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 actually gives you The Act legally recognises coercive control, economic abuse, and emotional abuse. Not just physical violence. Your experience has a legal name even if it left no visible mark. Special measures in court, confidential HR enquiries, enforceable workplace policies. These rights exist. This episode names them plainly.
Theme 4: NDAs: a tool used on you, and a tool you can use Since 2023, UK NDAs cannot legally prevent you from reporting abuse to the police, accessing legal advice, or speaking to a medical professional. An NDA that tries to is unenforceable. But a privacy agreement, drafted properly, can also protect you. The femicide figure matters here: one woman every four days is killed by a current or former partner, and at least 40% had left or were trying to. Silence that removes every route to safety is not protection.
Theme 5: The supporter's role: comfort is not enough The moment you know, you are part of the ecosystem. There is no neutral position. This episode is direct about the difference between comfort and action, and what both look like in practice. Including what to do if you don't have the capacity to show up.
Theme 6: The workplace finding that should stop every manager IFS 2026: in female-managed organisations, perpetrators are significantly more likely to be dismissed. In male-managed organisations, the female employee leaves. Same act. Different outcome. Depending entirely on who holds power. The episode names why and what a deliberate choice looks like instead.
Theme 7: The restitution vision: connecting the pipes The UK already has Deduction from Earnings Orders, Pension Sharing Orders, and the Proceeds of Crime Act. Each one created to correct a financial imbalance, because voluntary compliance doesn't work, because unpaid contribution has value, because you cannot keep the profit from harm. The argument in this episode: apply the same logic to the 12% survivor tax. Automatic. Offender-funded. Structural. Organisations like Surviving Economic Abuse have been naming this for years. The question is whether the conversation moves to consequence.
Listening context This episode contains references to domestic abuse, coercive control, court proceedings, economic harm, and the structural consequences of gender-based violence. It's grounded in research, strategy, and lived experience rather than graphic detail, but the subject matter is real and may cause discomfort. Listen with care.
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