As EU Member States put the Directive on Violence Against Women into practice, they are asked to do something many have never done before: build coordinated, multi-layered prevention strategies that tackle violence before it reaches the criminal justice system.
For Peter Söderström, violence-prevention expert at the Swedish Gender Equality Agency, that means starting from an uncomfortable fact.
“The vast majority of violence is perpetrated by us men. It’s all forms of violence: men’s violence against women and children, men’s violence against other men, and also men’s violence against themselves,” he says.
This is why Sweden’s 10-year national strategy puts men and boys at the centre of prevention.
It sees men’s violence against women as “the ultimate consequence of gender inequality”, where some men feel they have the right to control, dominate and use violence against others “because they are women”, reinforced by harmful masculinity norms.
Start early, but keep the responsibility with adults
The EU Gender-Based Violence Survey shows how early experiences of violence shape later victimisation. It finds that 6.6% of women have experienced sexual violence in childhood, and almost half who experienced it did not report it to the police or contact other person or service for support.
And, by their late twenties, 35% of women reported experiencing gender-based violence, compared with 24% in the oldest age group (aged 65-74).
Peter agrees that prevention must start young, but insists the main responsibility sits with adults.
He points to Swedish preschools as “the most progressive”, with teachers sensitive to a gender perspective: encouraging all children to try all toys and activities, sharing space and resources fairly, and challenging stereotypes about what girls and boys “should” do.
The problem, he warns, is what happens when children move on.
“After preschool, when they start school, they may change culture. You also need the school to be prepared. We are the grown-ups who are going to show the way. It’s not the young ones who are going to solve it, it is us,” he explains.
For Member States, this means treating prevention as lifelong learning. The Directive makes clear that education should start early in preschools and continue through adolescence, supported by trained teachers then reinforced at home, online, and in the community.
What does a “gender transformative” approach look like in real life?
The Directive asks governments to challenge harmful gender stereotypes, promote gender equality and encourage men and boys to act as positive role models. In practice, this is often described as a gender-transformative approach.
For Peter, that starts with naming and changing “harmful masculinity norms”. Improving equality early has the potential to reduce all forms of violence against women later in life.
“Most men don’t really want to be the one who is always tough, who doesn’t show feelings. There are such bad health effects from doing that,” he says.
The Swedish Gender Equality Agency has interviewed men across sectors who actively work for gender equality, as well as women experts assessing their engagement.
One of the most striking examples comes from a male-dominated industrial workplace, where a CEO went through gender-equality training and then spent time on the shop floor listening to employees, challenging sexist jokes, and redesigning work processes.
“Working with gender equality is about how we treat each other in every aspect of the workday,” Peter explains.
“From when we come to work, how we talk to each other, how we sit together and talk. This small talk is what builds another culture.”
Within a few years, the CEO went from being ridiculed as “the gender equality minister” to his company winning awards and gaining market share.
For Peter, this illustrates why prevention strategies must look beyond campaigns and curricula to organisational culture in workplaces, sports clubs, unions and online spaces.
Make space for men to talk, and to be vulnerable
The Swedish Gender Equality Agency finds that many men already disagree with harmful language and violence. But they feel unable to speak up.
“Often men say they don’t want to be part of the sexist jokes. They don’t think it’s funny, but if they are with other men, they adapt. It’s difficult for men to hold another man accountable,” says Peter.
Prevention work with men and boys therefore must create safe spaces where they can talk about pressure, fear and their own experiences of violence.
“We have to allow men to express their vulnerabilities and describe their experience and fear of being subjected to violence,” he says.
“So many men have experiences of severe violence from other men growing up. But they don’t talk about it.”
For national strategies, this means investing in school-based programmes and community work with men to help them get used to challenging harmful norms and supporting victims, rather than staying silent.
Build multi-level strategies, not one-off projects
Given the complex nature and causes of violence against women, no single intervention is enough.
“You have to work with different methods, different target groups, different collaborations and different arenas at the same time,” Peter says.
“It’s not about just doing one thing in one municipality. You have to work with many actors who come together.”
This social-ecological approach echoes the Directive’s call for primary, secondary and tertiary prevention: public awareness and education, early detection and support, and interventions with perpetrators and high-risk situations.
The Swedish Gender Equality Agency sees its role as supporting regional and municipal levels: spreading research on what works, promoting gender-transformative approaches, and helping local actors design coherent plans instead of isolated projects.
Long-term work and hard to measure… but it’s worth it
Some decision-makers worry that prevention is too long term, expensive and difficult to track progress.
Peter recognises the challenge: rigorous evaluations cost money, and “evidence-based” labels can be hard to obtain. But he insists that the direction of travel is clear.
Research shows that programmes addressing harmful gender norms can change not only attitudes but behaviours.
Meanwhile, the EU Gender-Based Violence Survey offers powerful evidence that early violence leads to later victimisation. Women who experience sexual abuse in childhood face three times higher odds of being sexually victimised by an intimate partner as adults, and four times higher odds by a non-partner.
The financial cost of inaction is staggering. EIGE estimates the total cost of gender-based violence in the EU at €366 billion in a single year (2019), with the cost in Sweden alone reaching €6.6 billion.
Living with violence in childhood is linked not only to greater risk of being victimised again later in life, but also to an increased risk of perpetration.
Peter notes that research, such as Jade Levell’s work on boys growing up with domestic abuse, shows clearly how violence in the home shapes violence on the street.
“There are men out there engaging and actively working towards a gender-equal society without violence,” Peter says.
“Most men do not use violence. Most men are not against gender equality. There are so many who are on board if they just get the chance to open up and talk about this.”
As governments design their national strategies under the Directive, Sweden’s experience offers a clear message: put men and boys at the heart of prevention, start early, work across sectors and treat everyday culture change as seriously as any law reform.
“I am hopeful,” he concludes. “We must reach out and believe that getting more men on board is really a crucial step. And I think it’s possible.”
