Following the tragic rape and murder of Sarah Everard in March, there has been a national debate surrounding attitudes towards women’s safety.
Leeds students, Emily Vause and Melissa Dawson, have set up a women’s community group through Leeds University called ‘The right to walk’.
It was formed after their own frightening experiences highlighted to them the importance of having strong female friendships. They aim to provide a support network for any women that want to share their own experiences without judgement, and make friends.
Emily said, “Having support is so important. You can underestimate it because you think when you have it, everyone has it, but that’s not the case for a lot of people. We want to make sure that everyone has someone they can go to if they need to”.
A survey posted into ‘Leeds student group’ on Facebook, containing over 50 000 members, revealed that 94.7% of the respondents take preventative measures in order to feel safer whilst walking home at night.
Over 55% of the population in Hyde Park, Headingly and Woodhouse are reportedly students.
Hyde Park has continuously been named one of the most dangerous areas in Leeds. Out of 336 crime-related incidents occurring in Hyde Park during October, 123 of these were violence and/or sexual offences.
Lottie Clark, a member of ‘The right to walk’ said, ” There’s so much focus on prevention rather than intervention. I think firstly what needs to be done is education. If men actually learnt to hold each other accountable at a young age we wouldn’t need government intervention”.
The group is currently waiting to be officially recognised by the university as a society. This will enable them to receive funding from the student union to continue to host their weekly meet-ups, organise activities and provide further support for women.
