One in two women in Australia does not feel safe walking alone at night, says a new report – and my response would be “only half?”.
The report, by the Community Council of Australia, looks at the kind of country it believes Australians want to live in, using a range of factors such as personal safety, education levels, suicide, incarceration rates and the gap between rich and poor.
Also just released is an interactive map of Melbourne which is aimed to warn women of the most dangerous places in the southern city.
Photo of the interactive map.
This map shows the places women feel unsafe in around Melbourne at night and allows other locals to add “sad spots” with their personal stories to warn others to be careful.
Sherry-Rose Watts, who is part of the Free to Be group working with Plan International, says she wasn’t surprised to find that one of the worst spots in Melbourne is around Flinders Street Station, Swanston Street and towards Elizabeth Street.
She added, on news.com.au, that it wasn’t that she wanted women to feel like they have to stay away from areas marked as unsafe but she wanted to see increased safety measures put in place in these areas.
Plan International Australia deputy chief executive Susanne Legena told news.com.au. “Unfortunately, Australian girls say they sometimes feel just as unsafe in some public areas after dark as girls from countries with far higher rates of violence,” she said.
“This is concerning and we need to really listen to girls and start to make positive changes to our urban environment to ensure they always feel safe and welcomed.”
I know few women who feel safe enough to walk alone at night, even along busier roads.
The story of Jill Meagher who was raped and murdered as she walked the few hundred metres to her Brusnwick home resonates with every Australian woman. We’ve seen the CCTV footage, and we heard the horrific evidence given at the trial of her murderer and rapist Adrian Bayley.
And there are other stories. I grow up in Adelaide in the 80s and 90s so I am truly terrified by even the thought of walking anywhere on my own at night.
I now have three teenage children, two of them daughters, and I am also terrified for them. So that half of women are scared to walk alone at night is horrible, but also surprisingly less than I thought.
Melbourne women can find the interactive map here.
