Written submission from Mrs Hayley Crawshaw (SPP0052)

Introduction

  1. I am submitting this evidence in a personal capacity, as a student and researcher of violence against women and children.
  2. My evidence was collected through primary research for an MA dissertation at CWASU (Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit), London Metropolitan University on the ways in which women negotiate their fear and experiences of violence and sexual harassment, whilst engaging in outdoor leisure activities in the UK.
  3. The evidence focuses on the experiences of middle-aged and older women, and in rural and green spaces. Older women’s experiences of sexual harassment are often ignored, as are the experiences of women in spaces other than urban.
  4. Nine women aged between their mid-thirties and late-sixties were interviewed about their experiences of sexual harassment and violence whilst participating in outdoor leisure activities such as walking, running and cycling.

Executive summary

  1. Whilst the body of empirical research on sexual harassment by men in public space, particularly in urban environments has increased (see Vera Gray, 2014 and 2016) there is still little data on how such experiences are negotiated by women choosing to participate in outdoor activities in rural and green spaces, particularly in the UK.
  2. The threat of violence has the same effect as its use - imposing a social control on women’s behaviour (Green, Hebron and Woodward, 1987). Even if men might not intend physical violence, insulting, mocking and sexually harassing women automatically causes them to sense danger (Merry, 1981).
  3. It is generally accepted by women that they live with the threat of violence, and that leisure choices must be negotiated because of this fear (Woodward et al. 1989).

Fear – a shared reality

  1. The research participants understood and have experienced fear of sexual harassment and violence in outdoor spaces, as a shared and unspoken reality.
  2. As one participant stated: “You could probably ask every single female that has passed us…but which…female hasn’t?” (XXXXX). It is part of our gendered heritage.
  3. Women are expected to learn how to cope with fear of harassment and violence. “I guess as a woman you just learn, because I obviously took more risks when I was younger... I just feel very fortunate that nothing happened to me” (XXXXX).
  4. Fearing harassment or violence has been normalised to such an extent that neither the fear, nor even sometimes the perpetration of harassment and violence, are considered extraordinary (see also Woodward et al. 1989). Several participants began the interview by saying that nothing significant had ever happened to them but went on to relay stories that demonstrated otherwise. “I was standing there marshalling and this man came up and started talking, and he did not go away…. He was just ‘where do you live, where do you work...I’m telling him nothing you know. I was trying to be polite…I had to stay there, because you know the runners would have got lost if I’d moved, so I had to…put up with him…And then when the race finished, thank goodness, and I could escape, he just grabbed me and “can I have a kiss?”, and he kissed me, or tried to, on my mouth he tried to, but I just went like that [mimics pulling away] and he didn’t manage, and then I just sort of stumbled off and got away from him” (XXXXX).
  5. “As we got to the pool there was a naked man sunbathing…and this was in the middle of nowhere…he obviously saw me, but I’m not sure if he saw [name of partner] and the dog because they were further over to the right…But anyway I thought ‘I’m not stopping there!’ so went a bit further up the stream…and [name of partner] was just playing in the rock pools a bit further up…so he was out of sight, when the dog suddenly started barking…and he ran off up the hill…So I went after the dog, and then over the brow of the hill this naked man was running down the hill with her snapping at his bottom!...he’d been sneaking up on me” (XXXXX).
  6. Fear of violence and harassment has been internalised to the extent that women are expected to learn to manage it automatically, and to do so without receiving recognition for the effort involved in devising and implementing coping strategies.

 

Risky spaces

  1. As Henderson (1991) notes, fear of violence, especially sexual violence, may inhibit women from participating in outdoor leisure activities in remote areas. Those same men who are feared in dark streets, are also feared in dark parks and woodlands (Burgess, 1998; Koskela, 1999; Pain 2000).
  2. Women do not avoid certain spaces because they are afraid of those spaces, but because they are afraid of what men might do to them in those spaces (Koskela and Pain, 2000; Pain, 1993).
  3. Women find urban parks intimidating, especially at night, largely because they fear being sexually harassed or victimised there (see also Valentine, 1991; Madge, 1997; Burgess, 1998 and Koskela and Pain, 2000). All participants said they felt more afraid or wary when walking in urban areas.
  4. Fear levels are affected not only spatially – by certain types of space, but temporally – by time of day and year. Most of the participants said that they were hyper-aware when walking through woodlands and parks, and in some cases, would avoid them altogether. All participants talked about times of the day where they would not go out for a walk, run or bike ride, or where they would feel wary if they had to.

 

Hyper-vigilance

  1. All participants felt the need to adopt a state of hyper-vigilance in certain spaces and at certain times, believing that they alone are responsible for ensuring their safety (see also Wesely and Gaarder, 2004).
  2. Mentally preparing for the possibility of harassment and violence, provides a sense of security. “If you anticipate and prepare then you know at least you’re in some position to prevent it happening” (XXXXX).
  3. XXXXX thought that she remained in this state of heightened awareness for the duration of her time spent outdoors. Walking or cycling mainly in an urban area means that she never feels truly at ease. XXXXX describes adopting owl-like behaviour to help her risk assess. “Wherever you go you have to have a bit of eyes in the back of your head…I think you always have to be aware…just for survival” (XXXXX).
  4. Women scan their surroundings, and if they decide that the risk level is acceptable, they proceed. If the risk is deemed too high for them, they retreat, start planning an escape route, or look for an alternative.

Being sensible

  1. Several participants talked about the need to ‘be careful’ or ‘be sensible’, in a way that infers that all women know by heart the unwritten social rules they must follow to stay safe: do not go out at night; do not talk to strangers; learn to defend yourself; and feign confidence when walking. These social norms have become ‘common sense’, and women are expected to work hard at displaying it, without the additional labour required being recognised as such.
  2. ‘Acting sensibly’ means that women must always remain aware that they are sexed bodies in public space, and that they must respond to their sexual vulnerability in socially acceptable ways (Sur, 2014). They must avoid deliberately putting themselves in situations which could be considered risky. XXXXX for instance was adamant that there were certain outdoor behaviours she would not engage in, because she did not consider them sensible. In her words, “you negate the risk if you’re sensible”.
  3. XXXXX talked about self-policing rules being instilled in females as children; and that as adults, women are reminded by the media that they have a responsibility to protect themselves.
  4. XXXXX talked about having had “a lifetime of being careful”, and that consequently she now automatically behaved in a way that she had found made her feel safe. Both she and XXXXX implored that women “have to” behave in such a way, probably because as XXXXX thought, and as she rightly believed many other women thought – they worry about what other people would say should they be victimised or risk victimisation.
  5. Similarly, XXXXX thought if something should happen when she goes walking at night, the response would be: “well you shouldn’t be there…What were you doing out on your own?”
  6. Women who engage in outdoor activities are all too aware that they might be blamed for something happening in what still tends to be considered a largely male or macho space (see also Bialeschki, 1999; Valentine, 1989; Woodward et.al. 1989; Wesely and Gaarder, 2004; Cosgriff et.al. 2010).

Safe havens

  1. All participants felt safer in familiar areas (see also Kilgour and Parker, 2013); Krenichyn, 2006).
  2. Once they develop an intimate knowledge of them, such places become a refuge where women can feel at ease, and where risk management strategies can be temporarily abandoned (see also Valentine, 1989). To become safe spaces however, women must invest time and energy in making them so.

Dogs – woman’s best friend?

  1. XXXXX said that having her dog with her at night, made her feel safe enough to go out for a walk. As a companion, the dog helps reduce her feelings of risk of experiencing violence or harassment (see also Sur, 2014). “If I was to go out at night, I’m always going to take my dog with me…She’s German Shepherd mix, people don’t know that she’s actually more scared of them, but you know, I’m still going to take my dog, maybe a little bit as a deterrent” (XXXXX).
  2. XXXXX described the dog who chased off the naked stalker, as a protector, and an unexpected one because she had never previously demonstrated such behaviour. “She protected me, and her owners – my brother and his partner, they couldn’t believe it because she had never been known to bark or growl at anyone” (XXXXX).
  3. When asked if her partner worried about her safety, XXXXX said no, because she usually has the dog with her. XXXXX too sometimes takes a friend’s dog out walking and thought of him as a deterrent and potential protector.
  4. Most participants who walk with dogs said that they helped reduce fear levels (see also Wesely and Gaarder, 2004). Dogs are given the responsibility of not only protecting women, but of policing, and sometimes punishing as in the case of XXXXX’s stalker, men’s behaviour.

Strategies and safety tools

  1. XXXXX, XXXXX and XXXXX all said that they usually take their phones with them when they go walking or running outdoors. They are used as a form of self-defence (see also Wesely and Gaarder, 2004).
  2. Dog owners looked upon their dogs as a deterrent and form of protection - as a canine safety tool in some respects. The dog’s presence helps reduce feelings of fear. Mobile phones, sunglasses and appropriate clothing are also used as safety tools. They provide a certain amount of peace of mind, help women hide their true feelings, and fit in to the landscape in a way deemed socially acceptable.
  3. All participants used strategies to allow them to enjoy outdoor leisure activities despite fearing violence and harassment. No individual’s package of strategies were the same, but they shared similarities. Embodied strategies took the form of thinking and behaving in a certain way; whilst reinforcement strategies used tools or companions as safety devices, and spaces that the women have made safe. The dominant embodied strategies were: risk assessing and adopting a state of hyper-vigilance; ‘being sensible’ and behaving in a socially acceptable way.
  4. All participants risk-assessed, but some were more conscious of doing so than others. Women regularly monitor their surroundings when outdoors in public space, less so when they feel that they are in safe place. When a risk assessment is required, depending on what they see and feel, they will then decide how ‘sensible’ it is to continue. That women should behave in a certain way outdoors has come to be understood as ‘common sense’.
  5. That all participants strategise, suggests that it would be impossible for women to enjoy outdoor activities without adopting such tactics to help them reduce their fear levels.

Conclusions

  1. Fear of men’s violence and harassment when engaged in outdoor leisure activities, is multi-dimensional. It is impacted by not only by the social connotations of being a woman outdoors, but also by the type of space they are in and at what time of day, and by how that space makes them feel.
  2. To help them navigate their geographies of fear and limitation, the participants have created personalised mental maps that chart both their safe and unsafe places. Having to do so, is part of the social expectation that women must learn how to cope with their fears of violence. Fear of harassment and violence is considered normal, so much so that experiencing violence and intrusion is not deemed extraordinary. Several participants began the interview by saying that ‘nothing’ had ever happened to them, but went on to relay stories that showed otherwise.
  3. That women are normally denied the opportunity to talk about their experiences, so much so that they often forget about them, demonstrates just how much fear of, and experiencing violence and harassment, has been normalised, despite it being a shared reality for women.
  4. Place is not an abstract point in space and time, it is known also through feeling and sentiment. Different spaces are experienced differently by women, not because of the natural elements of those spaces, but because of the potential that those features offer perpetrators of violence and harassment.
  5. Whilst trees are appreciated for their beauty, woodlands provide potential hiding places for men who could cause harm. Urban areas induce fear for the same reason, and because they contain more people, than rural areas. Most of the participants sought out wild, open spaces with few people, so that they could scan the horizon, and reduce their chances of being victimised. Whilst daytime activities are preferred, and despite women having been conditioned to fear the night, some participants did run and walk after dark, but in specific places. This constituted part of their strategy of resistance.
  6. Such embodied strategies require women to think, feel and act on their safety before they can begin to enjoy outdoor leisure activities. Having been led to believe that they alone are responsible for ensuring their safety, and learned that they will be blamed if something should happen, women must mentally prepare for the possibility of violence and harassment. Scanning the horizon allows them to assess the risk level, and continue if it is deemed acceptable. If the risk is deemed too high, they retreat or look to escape. ‘Sensible women’ avoid deliberately putting themselves in situations which others would consider risky, by adhering to the unwritten safety code.
  7. Phones, dog whistles, tracking device and even dogs often provide a form of comfort for women outdoors. Such safety tools help reduce feelings of risk, with dogs in particular both reducing fear levels, and serving as a form of defence where women did not feel that they would be able to fight for themselves. Phones too are used as a form of self-defence, although it was recognised that assistance would not be immediate, unlike the reaction of a threatened dog. Familiar areas also serve as a reinforcement strategy, in that after investing the time and energy required to get to know them and thereby make them safe, such places become a refuge.
  8. Sadly, it was correctly anticipated that women would fear men’s violence and intrusion, but it has been reassuring to see just how much they are resisting their fear, and claiming their right to use outdoor leisure spaces in the way that many men do.

 

 

Recommendations

  1. Research such as this can act as a form of consciousness raising, for both the participants and reader (Cahill, 2004). It shares knowledge and understanding about the nature of gendered oppression, and makes participants aware that they have the ability to challenge inequality. During several interviews, participants who had not previously expressed such a desire, talked about becoming women’s rights activists, or mentioned that they had discussed the research with friends and that it had started conversations about fearing men’s violence and harassment that they would not otherwise have had.
  2. Future research could include group interviews where women discuss their fears and experiences with men, to teach men what women must contend with when outdoors, and encourage them to support women in their quest to use space equally. Participating in, or reading about this research, might also persuade men to step in and stop harassment and violence when they see it happening, or when they anticipate it happening; or even to question and police their own behaviour where previously they might themselves have intruded on women.
  3. The research will also be of interest to policy makers who are keen to encourage more women to use outdoor spaces, for health or leisure reasons, but who are unsure as to why the numbers are not as high as they would like them to be. Knowing why women fear men’s violence and harassment and self-impose curfews, might lead to the development of safer facilities in terms of better lighting, or the funding of women only running clubs for instance.

 

March 2018

References

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