Editor: Women’s safety is everyone’s responsibility, yet it is worse
New parents have hearts full of hope and love, but also fear for what world their new arrival has to navigate.
There are plenty of pitfalls along the path of life but none of us create families thinking that our girls won’t be safe in a public venue surrounded by friends or that our boys would drug somebody to the point of unconsiouness so they can take advantage of them.
These things are a world from what we want for ourselves or our children yet it is what a whole generation is now facing in our own city.
Women are not safe. I’m not talking about not being able to walk through the park in the dark, although they should be safe to do that without risk. I mean in our pubs and clubs. The recent rise in spiking drinks and even injecting women with drugs is utterly horrifying.
As a mother, it makes your whole body shudder at the thought of it happening to your daughter. It also makes you question if you – and everyone you know – has done enough to make sure our sons look after themselves and the female friends rather than seeing them as targets.
We are simply not getting it right. We have it all backwards. The problem here uneqivocally lies with men. That is it, the be all and end all.
As MP Sarah Champion puts it so eloquently: “Women should not have to take safety precautions before going on a night out. Women should not be scared of being assaulted and attacked when going clubbing.
“We should be focused on preventing the harmful attitudes in men which leads to them committing offences.
“We also need to ensure we listen to students about what they want to see to increase their safety so that they can enjoy their time at university without traumatic incidents taking place. I will urge the Government to listen and enact the measures necessary to protect young women.”
When will we learn? How long does it take to change the mindset of everyone in society and is that even possible?
Imagine what it was like during your nightclubbing days. For me and my friends in the 1990s, there were plenty of risks and my mum worried just like I do. Yet here we are and it seems even worse. How much longer will we allow it to go on?