Do you feel safe walking alone?

[toomanycushionshere]

I live in a village, fairly close to some lovely walks across fields. But I never use them on my own! I automatically assume that it would be an unsafe thing to do, even though I’ve never encountered anything or anyone untoward.

I’m sure I’m not the only woman who won’t walk in the country / woods etc alone, but I wish I felt braver and wasn’t missing out. Those of you who do, do you just take your chances or do you take precautions (alarm etc)?

I think we live in a similar area. I am the same age as one of her daughters and I still remember the news story vividly. Then Julia and now Claire. It feels like men are ramping up in this area, especially if you consider Wayne Couzens was living and attacking women in the area for over a decade before he killed Sarah Everard. It is very scary how so many people don't seem to realise that if you live here it is heightened in your mind that you could be next.

It was shocking, wasn’t it? You grow up spending half your life roaming around the countryside, feeling perfectly safe because you’re not in a big scary city with muggers etc, and it not even occurring to you that a random man is anything other than a dog walker, to suddenly being banned from going anywhere near these places because they aren’t safe any longer. You start seeing these places differently and that doesn’t always leave you.

I walk alone all the time in cities and rural countryside. I rarely feel unsafe. I don’t take any precautions either. It didn’t occur to me until recently that there are some women who will never go to these places on their own. That makes me incredibly sad.

Statistical, young solo men are far more likely to actually be attacked.

Maybe because they go out more, because they don't feel unsafe.
Maybe because they hang out with men, the biggest threat?

Also more likely to be involved in low level criminal stuff like gangs and be attacked because of that or in a case of mistaken identity. So many of these attacks that are initially reported as random turn out not to be random at all when they get to court. Not all obviously, but it is a different pattern of violence with different risk and perpetrator factors to male on female violence.

Doing just about anything is unherently unsafe though. It's a question of levels of risk.

In my own personal sphere I don't know any women who've had issues when walking alone in rural places (and I know quite a few runners and dog walkers!). On the other hand virtually ever woman I know can recount multiple stories of verbal abuse, sexual innuendoes, flashing, being groped and sadly too frequently even worse sexual assault - when they were in crowded public places.

I think the women that are worried about going out alone in rural locations probably do so because attacks in these places get such a lot of profile when they happen. This doesn't mean they are common. Whereas random "bad" behaviour from men on an average Saturday night doesn't make the news at all.

I have recently started walking every day, at different times. Yesterday I went out at 7pm ish. I walk around the town where I live and there are some lovely footpaths around the river. One of these footpaths is quite secluded and I did suddenly feel a bit anxious and thought to myself maybe I should avoid it especially in the evening. There used to be a small road that went from a residential area to the main road, it’s been swallowed into a housing estate now. But I did walk along it once, in the day, and felt nervous because it was a country road and again, it was quite secluded. But I have a friend who is older than me and walks around the town first thing in the morning and never seems to feel anxious about it.

Well, I wouldn't walk through any woods but am happy walking through the streets. I know my area and am ok with it. I used to live in Packham and people were surprised that I would walk home/bus home in early hours of morning. It was fine. Occasionally , there would be a problem on buses (Youths absolutely astonished that they had to pay on a bus/use a card) but did not affect me except the bus driver would sometimes stop the bus until they got off.

Peckham not Packham!

Always have, would never avoid it. Except in cities at night when younger.

Thank you. You’ve articulated how I feel better than I did. It’s a life of being told and learning that men cannot always be trusted. Yes, not all men obviously, but you never know which ones you can and can’t trust.

I walk alone for miles across fields and in woodland. I go with my dog and carry a hiking stick… just in case. I rarely see other people and those that I do are friendly… I’ve never had any issues.

I think it’s sad that people are too frightened to walk where they’d like to.

^^This but even these attacks mainly occur in urban areas. You are vanishingly unlikely to be attacked in a rural area. My biggest worry is that when walking alone in the middle of nowhere I’ll slip over fracture my ankle and have no phone signal! Or I see a lot of adders where I walk I like to see them as they are rare and rather beautiful but I read if your bitten by one your meant to stay still and a wait for an ambulance.

I do - but there are areas I avoid especially at quiet times and do feel on edge at times. I feel safer out in the 'proper' countryside/up a mountain than the paths in fields around our town.

However - I have had some fabulous solo walks and the more I do it the less anxious I feel. If you want to do it you could start with a short route and build yourself up OP?

It does make me so, so angry that many of us live like this - scared to go out on our own and when we do not listening to music, making sure people remember us in case we don't come back, not going out at night, avoiding certain routes.

There are a few ladies walking groups springing up - would it be worth having a look and trying one out OP? I see one a few miles away on FB posting where they are going (no dogs allowed sadly) and they always look like they have a lovely time and have about 20 women in the pictures.

I’ve seen this cited so many times, but it’s still not actually true that it’s safer to be a woman than a young solo man, is it? Not unless you restrict the definition of attack to pure physical violence from a stranger. But that’s not all that women fear and experience.

Do the stats you’ve taken this figure from have any figures on the number of men who have been sexually assaulted by other men? (Not women, who they’d probably be able to fight off if they needed to, but men who are bigger and stronger than they are and who could overpower them without much difficulty. You know, like women have to cope with?) Men who have been innocently walking along, minding their own business and not bothering anyone, only to be confronted by another man who is masturbating ‘at’ them? How many men have been followed by other men grabbing at them and harassing them to go with them? How many men have been walking through a club and have had another man’s hand land on an intimate part of their body? How many men have passed a man, only to have that man turn around and start following them, calling out offensive and frightening comments to them? How many men have had to pretend they have a partner because a man has demanded their phone number and it’s safer to pretend than simply say no because some men get very aggressive when they’re turned down for a reason they judge as ‘not good enough’? I think women are so used to this behaviour, we’re so conditioned to accept it, brush it off and go on about our day, to adjust our behaviour so we expose ourselves to as little risk as possible, that we don’t even register it much anymore.

Yes, young solo men might very well be at higher risk of having other men be violent towards them for no reason, but until young solo men start being sexually harassed at the same rate women are, when they’re getting out of a cab a couple of streets early because the driver is creepy and they don’t want him to know where they live, or drivers are taking them down quiet roads and propositioning them, when GQ and Lad Bible are doing articles on 25 ways to get home safely without being raped, that’s when I’ll believe that it’s safer to be a woman than a man.

Lucky enough to live within reach of Peak District where you are never far from other walkers, more often in clubs or small groups. I love it's not completely safe but the further from the town I am the safer I feel in terms of danger from other people.

I mean I know it's not completely safe.
I thought we could now edit posts, but can't see how to do it?

Didn't realise this was an old thread. Never mind.

I live in a small, safe seaside town and I am happy to walk around the town and seafront during the day and evenings.

We also have lots of fields and countryside and I would say I probably would think twice about walking on my own there.

There have never been any issues reported in the local press in term of safety issues, but as a woman I would always think twice about walking in a rural, isolated spot. Which is a shame really, but that is the world we live in unfortunately.

I used to live in London and never worried about walking around at night but in the capital there are always cars and people out and about anytime of the day or night.

I think it is one of those things where the less you do it, the greater the perceived risks seem in your mind. I'm wary of getting a bit like that with night driving, so I make a point of keeping on doing it just a bit to ensure that there remains as much realism as possible in my risk perception.

I walk anywhere and everywhere with my dog without feeling afraid (except of cows of course ;-)

I live in a village as well and am quite happy to walk alone even at night (with head torch). It's so quiet that if anyone screamed people would investigate, if an alarm goes off the neighbours always go and check.

I was assaulted in a very busy town centre at 10am there were at least 30 people walking past and a group of builders repairing a building right opposite me all in a pedestrianised area.

I shouted for help and although many people turned round and looked at me, no one came to my assistance. So I don't think we're better off in any one place more than another.

The man was a stranger and had assaulted another woman opening up a business just 30 minutes previously, on the same street pretty much. I knew the other woman so we got to discuss it.

The man was as high as a kite on various things. He walked away when I shouted for help and was very well known to the police.

Yes. In cities, in the countryside. At night. In busy areas and quiet ones. As pp have said, we massively overstate the risk of being attacked by strangers.