Have you ever felt unsafe walking on the streets? Well, you’re not alone. Several surveys in recent years have found an increase in women who have reported feeling uncomfortable in public spaces.
There has been a significant rise in gender-based violence, including things such as misogynistic comments, sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape and assault. This has been shown by Open University, who found that 17% of women asked said that they had experience some form of online abuse, out of the 17%, 11% said that this abuse transferred in to their real life.
It’s been announced the Fight for the Night protest is due to take place soon, the protest is set to begin on at 5pm on November 24th at Memorial Gates, University Avenue and will go on for 16 days. This protest has been set up by several student’s unions around Scotland, with many of its participants being young female college students.
And the campaign comes at a time when several incidents surrounding misogyny have been reported to Police Scotland.
A women’s running group, Go&Glow called officers after members of the group had experienced harassment from a man who had saw them running in the Meadows in Edinburgh, speaking to the Scotsman a runner with of the group, Alexa Manganiello stating, “You’d think you’d feel safer in numbers, that’s kind of why we’re doing it, but it just goes to show that it happens all the time, whether you’re alone or in a group.”
This is not surprising as one in five women in higher education have experience sexual harassment and one and four experience sexual assault, with half of those who had experienced this, saying that they had experienced it on campus.
I spoke to the student’s association at Glasgow Clyde College in regards about what can be done about gender-based violence. Toni McInally of the students association said, “One of our prioritise this year as a student association is how do we raise awareness of gender-based violence”
Glasgow Clyde also mentioned that they work with White Ribbon Scotland to help educate men on gender-based violence and teaches them to not be a bystander, if they are a witness to a gender-based crime.
The protest aims to provoke action to make streets safer to walk in at night and wants to raise awareness about gender-based violence and de-stigmatise conversations around it.
