Co-founder of Liverpool female running club shares experiences of being harassed
Female runners gathered in Westminster last night to highlight the issue
The co-founder of a Liverpool female-only running group has shared their experiences of being harassed and intimidated while out running in the dark.
A new poll has found that two-thirds of women are worried about the risk of sexual harassment or intimidation when exercising outside in the darker evenings.
Female runners gathered in central London last night as part of a campaign to draw attention to this issue.
Liverpool Girls Running was created around six months ago and their members run in the city centre.
Co-founder Melissa Martin said:
"Most of the people that I have spoken to have had some sort of experience that has made them feel uncomfortable. Even where we're running in big groups - there can be 10-15 of us running and we will have people shouting things at us that would make us feel quite uncomfortable.
"We've had people laughing and joking trying to run with us, trying to run in the group and it normally is men who are doing this. People who have shouted things, whistled at us and that's even when we're running in groups so I can only imagine what that would be like if we had been running on our own or in twos.
"Am I unsafe when I am out running?"
"From a personal experience, I've had it in the past. You're running - you've got cars beeping at you, you have people speaking to you as you're going past, shouting things. It doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen enough to make you think 'am I unsafe when I am out running?'
"I do think if you turned around and asked some of these people what is the reason for them saying things or shouting or beeping, I actually don't think that many people would be able to give you an answer. I don't know what they would actually say as a response if they were confronted about it."
Polling of 1,000 women across the UK last month for This Girl Can found almost half (48%) said they do not like to get active outdoors after dark and 46% change their outdoor exercise routine or habits as a direct result of the darker months.
The survey also found that six in ten (60%) women are concerned about the risk of sexual harassment or intimidation when being active as the nights draw in.
Melissa said:
"Instead of just getting a normal sports watch, I got one that was more expensive so it's got a tracking device on just in case my phone runs out of battery.
"I'll always tell people where I'm going, where I'm running. I probably wouldn't go out running after 8pm which is a shame because I sometimes don't get back from work until 7pm and in those circumstances, I do just think it's not worth it because you don't know what's going to happen and there are a couple of incidents every year which make it to the news which are quite serious, so in those circumstances I will just stick to the gym and go on the treadmill, which is not something I enjoy but sometimes that's your only option.
"I know there's a lot of people that run with little alarms where they can pull it and it will make a really loud noise, which hopefully will draw attention and scare whoever it is and give them time to get away, which obviously shouldn't be the case.
"A lot of girls won't go running when it's dark at all"
"I know a lot of girls that just won't go running when it's dark at all - whether that's early morning or later on. They'll just stick to the treadmills, which is a shame."
This Girl Can has posted a video on ways that we can help women to feel safer when getting active outside.
Melissa added:
"I'm not saying go and confront people who do it because I wouldn't want anyone to put themselves in an unsafe situation - but if anyone is out with their friends or companions and someone shouts something, just say to them 'Why have you done that? Do you not know that makes people feel uncomfortable?'
"We've had that in the past when we've been running and there'll be a group of people and just one person will shout something and the other people will look away or just do an awkward laugh or something, but I feel that would be a good opportunity on a small level of just saying to people 'why did you do that?' and then that might make them think 'I actually don't know, I've never thought of it before, it's just something that I do'.
"It is definitely something that needs to be brought to light because I just don't think things will ever change unless we do bring attention to it and I do just think all we can do really is just look out for each other.
"I do think until things do start to change and start to get better, if there are people that do feel unsafe to run that they definitely should join a running group. There's around 20 of us that run and I know that every single of us do feel better about it."