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In this episode of the Health Equity Podcast, Tracey O’Neill speaks with Dr Ceryl Teleri Davies, social worker, academic and Research Wales Advanced Fellow at Bangor University.

Drawing on her doctoral research with young people in North Wales, Dr Davies explores how harmful gendered social norms shape attitudes towards relationships, masculinity and femininity. The conversation examines how abuse can sit on a continuum, from minimised behaviours and online harassment to coercive control and violence, and how normalisation allows that continuum to persist.

They discuss why violence against women and girls must be understood as a public health issue, not a private matter, and why prevention requires a whole community approach. This includes schools, families, practitioners, policymakers and crucially the inclusion of boys and young men as part of meaningful change.

The episode also introduces Dr Davies’ current international research on enhancing cervical screening care for women living with the impacts of sexual violence and abuse, including work across the UK, Sweden and Australia. The focus is on developing and evaluating compassionate, trauma informed models of care shaped by women’s lived experience.

This is a rigorous and honest discussion about power, control, prevention and what real systems change requires.

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