FiLiA is Launching Our Campaign to Say ‘Time’s Up for Strip Clubs’
We are campaigning for:
An end to licensing of strip clubs as sexual exploitation venues.
For existing venues to be closed down.
For women currently ‘working’ in these establishments to be supported with routes to exit the industry.
The No More Strip Clubs campaign exists because women should not have to fight, year after year, against the continued licensing of venues built on the sexual objectification of women.
They are not ‘entertainment’.
They are exploitation.
They are male violence against women and girls.
We have a right to feel safe and welcome in our towns and cities.
Across Britain, local authorities continue to grant and renew licences for strip clubs (known as ‘sexual entertainment venues’ or SEVs) despite evidence of their wider impact on women and girls’ safety, equality and freedom in public spaces. The Government’s 2025 VAWG Action Plan now explicitly references potential reform of the SEV licensing regime, including concerns around sexual exploitation and licensing exemptions. In our original research, women told us that they do not want strip clubs in their towns and cities but many either did not know they COULD object or how to do so. Women made the point that councils should not assume a lack of objections reflects community support for strip clubs, when the opposite is true. ‘You do need to listen to what residents are saying. Just because it’s there and we’ve not protested outside, it doesn’t mean we’re happy’, as one of the research participants noted!
As part of the No More Strip Clubs campaign, we are supporting women to challenge both individual licences and the wider policies that allow strip clubs to operate. We will shortly be launching practical campaigning toolkits for Scotland, and for England and Wales. These will help women navigate licensing law, understand equality duties, gather and use evidence, engage with consultations and object to applications in their local areas. At its heart, this campaign is about amplifying women’s voices, supporting women to campaign and hold councils to account for the decisions they make about women and girls’ lives and access to the public realm.
This campaign is grounded in the knowledge that strip clubs are not a form of ‘entertainment’ or a neutral part of the night-time economy. They exist within a wider context of inequality, sexual objectification and male violence against women and girls. Women consistently say that these venues affect how safe and welcome they feel in public spaces, and many local authorities’ own equality and VAWG strategies recognise the need to challenge the attitudes and behaviours that underpin male violence against women.
Take Action Now!
We believe change is possible. Many councils across the UK have already introduced restrictive policies, adopted nil-cap approaches (committing to having no strip clubs) and refused licences where women have organised and spoken out. We know that councils and councillors listen to local women when they campaign loudly and refuse to go away!
Steps You Can Take:
ACTION ONE: Head over to our research page and read Life near Strip Clubs: Women’s Voices from UK Cities, by Dr Laura Favaro, which is available to download, for free. Share with your networks, your councillors, your MP, and anyone who needs to know what is happening in their town. A Report Summary is also available.
ACTION TWO: Come to our events and stay connected. Join us at our upcoming events in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Manchester (all TBC). We will be holding online sessions for those of you that can’t travel or are outside those areas. Sign up to FiLiA Women’s Assembly to be the first to hear about sessions.
ACTION THREE: Visit your local council’s website and research what their SEV policy is, if they have one, if they have adopted a nil cap, and how old their policy is. Many councils have not reviewed their SEV Policy for years (many for over a decade) despite significant developments in national discussion and policy relating to male violence against women and girls. If you can’t find the document online, you can call or email the council’s licensing team and request a copy. This information will be vital when you start to challenge any policy or licence and renewal applications.
ACTION FOUR: Sign up to hear more about the campaign, including when the toolkits are published, by emailing us at nomorestripclubs@filia.org.uk. We will be producing a Quick Guide, for if you are short on time, and a longer Campaigners’ Toolkit for either England and Wales, and for Scotland, for a fuller guide. These will be available on this page soon.
We want women to use our resources to lodge objections to strip club licence applications and renewals; to challenge their local council to implement stricter policies; to introduce a ‘nil cap’; and to push for local councils to consult women more transparently on their strip club policies.
We demand a future with #NoMoreStripClubs – join us to make this happen!
