Men Are Asking How They Can Help Make Streets Safer For Women After The Unfortunate Disappearance Of Sarah Everard

Sarah Everard’s disappearance in South London shocked the UK, and the case quickly turned into a wider conversation about women’s safety in public spaces.

As the investigation developed and a senior police officer was arrested as a murder suspect, people online began asking a different question, what can men actually do to help women feel safer on the streets? One local man, Stuart Edwards, sparked that debate with a post that struck a nerve.

The reactions kept building from there, and the conversation only got bigger.

Sarah Everard Disappeared on the Evening of March 3

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Stuart Opened a Very Important Debate About What Men Can Do to Make Women Feel Safer on the Streets

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Even though the Covid lockdowns emptied the city streets, harassment remains a significant issue. “Girls face a double whammy of restrictions to public space, both as a result of the coronavirus measures and their experiences of street harassment. Despite streets being emptier, this harassment has plagued girls throughout the pandemic, with half (51%) experiencing it over the summer and one in five (19%) during the first national lockdown. Now more than ever, we must stand with girls and champion their right to move freely in public without the fear of being intimidated and harassed. That’s why we are calling for public sexual harassment to be made a crime.”

Rose Caldwell, the CEO of Plan International UK, said: “All women and girls should feel safe in public spaces, yet they continue to face harassment every day. They’re being followed, shouted at, touched, and groped-and it needs to stop.”

She added: “Currently, there is no UK law that fully criminalizes public sexual harassment, leaving perpetrators to get away with it. As one girl told us, you can be fined for dropping litter in the UK, but not for harassing a woman or girl in public. This cannot be right. Only by enacting legal change will we start to see a cultur...[truncated]

A Man Named Carl Encouraged Guys to Be Conscious of Their Actions

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That’s where the conversation shifted from grief to accountability.

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A UN survey found that 80% of women have experienced sexual harassment in public spaces at least once in their lives.

“This is a human rights crisis. It’s just not enough for us to keep saying ‘this is too difficult a problem for us to solve’-it needs addressing now,” said Claire Barnett, the executive director of UN Women UK.

“We are looking at a situation where younger women are constantly modifying their behavior in an attempt to avoid being objectified or attacked, and older women are reporting serious concerns about personal safety if they ever leave the house in the dark-even during the daytime in winter,” Barnett cautioned.

Meanwhile, a YouGov survey revealed that the vast majority of respondents (96%) did not report sexual harassment. Forty-five percent of them said that reporting it wouldn’t change a thing. And that’s sad.

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The BBC reports that patrols for women’s safety on the streets are being coordinated all over the United Kingdom, including in Clapham, where Sarah went missing. The coordinators of the Reclaim These Streets actions stated that it is wrong that “the response to violence against women requires women to behave differently.”

However, the police have stated that the night watches cannot go ahead due to Covid-19 restrictions. The organizers plan to go to the High Court to challenge this edict.

The Metropolitan Police Commissioner stated that it’s still “incredibly rare” for a woman to be kidnapped on the streets of London. “But I completely understand that despite this, women in London and the wider public-particularly those in the area where Sarah went missing-will be worried and may well be feeling scared.”

The debate is far from over.

For the accountability side, see how Ghetts got 12 years for a fatal hit-and-run. Rapper and Netflix personality Ghetts sentenced to prison after tragic hit-and-run.