women only parking spaces.

[startrek90]

I am learning to drive atm. In the country I live in most car parking places have parent and child, disabled and now also women only. The women only are closer to the door, more well lit and have panic alarms.

I don't know what to think. On the one hand I think they are really good as it means when I finish school late I am not wandering around alone in a dark car park but on the other hand I am annoyed that they are needed at all.

My husband has said he would prefer (when available) that I use them when driving alone or with my baby. He says its safer. He is a native to this country so I trust his judgement.

What do you think? Something just feels...off? I don't know what it is or I can't explain why it makes me uncomfortable

Which country, out of interest?

Well, Germany has them, and some parts of The Netherlands.

Not sure how much safer they are, or if it's a magical thinking thing. I can imagine that a woman who didn't use one, and was then attacked would be told that she wouldn't have been attacked if she had used them, in the same way as women everywhere are blamed for men's violence toward them.

Apparently they have them a lot in Malaysia, according to my friends and relatives who live there. In the shopping malls the car parks are generally badly lit and lone women were being considered to be an 'easy' target for muggings (sometimes sexual assault), especially in the high end malls where they might have bags containing expensive brand names that can be resold easily. So they designated parts of the car park near the entrance as women only and increased the lighting in that area. I would have been better (but more expensive) to have increased security and put in cctv, but I suppose that it addresses a particular issue.

It's off because it's pointing out to you that they think you are unsafe.

P&C are there for a different reason - to give you room, and to give you a way to the shop that hopefully crosses as few bits of the carpark as possible in case little ones run ahead.

I lived in Malaysia for a while a few years ago, they didn't have the spaces back then in any of the malls I frequented, but I always felt very safe when out and about, at any time of day or night. There is an elevated kind of paranoia though - I remember DP going away for a couple of weeks and a colleague was shocked that I'd be staying by myself in the house, let alone alone in the house without an alarm. Our house was in a nice bit of KL, next to a government minister who had a permanent armed guard. I think I was going to be as safe as I ever would be.

I don't like the idea for the same reason I feel uneasy when I see police with machine guns in airports - because it suggests that there is a legitimate danger to be worried about. Not knowing the country, I wouldn't be able to say whether that was a fair assessment of the situation, but it would certainly put me on edge.

It's Germany so not a hot bed of aggressive misogyny. It's just really odd. I can understand disabled parking and parent and child (contrary to MN opinion I really like them) but the women one is weird after all there is nothing to stop a man parking there anyway. I can totally see how a woman who didn't park there being blamed for a attack. On the other hand I do really like them just because they are close to the door .

The "It makes people paranoid" argument is nonsense in my opinion.

I recently told someone that the military in Germany should provide separate housing for female soldiers (They should already have it, but apparently they only have separate bedrooms) to keep the number of soldiers stable after nobody is forced to serve, anymore. Rapists are a very real danger in a male dominated "profession" like this, and certainly keep many women from entering it.

And he said "Oh no, that would look like the male soldiers are rapists". Yeah, right. Let's endanger women for the sake of making it look like everything is okay when actually it is not.

The reason why those parking spaces are not terribly useful is that nothing keeps men from going there and attacking the women parking there. Maybe even on purpose because they know there are women there!

The only advantage is that women have to walk shorter distances, so ... probably if you have a "risk per metre walked" that helps reduce risks of attack?

A separate garage where the entrance is controlled so that only women, girls and underage male children can enter would be of more use, but would cost a lot more money than just putting a sign there, so I don't think it will happen.

At the moment, if I were a politician, I would not choose to spend money on women only spaces. What use would it be to spend millions for a women only garage when it might next be decided that men who identify as female (i.e. all men who want to) can enter, too? Might as well use the money to hire a couple of guards.

Considering that the danger of acquaintance rape is much higher than that of stranger rape ... I am not really sure we need those separate parking spaces, anyway.
The money might be more effective when used for a education program that teaches girls about abusive relationships, how to get out, and how to avoid getting into them in the first place.

It annoyed me in Germany. If there are problems in the car park with lighting or overhanging bushes or something, then that needs sorting out - it's also dangerous for men. I don't see that Frauenplätze help.

(Parent and child spaces I do understand, as they usually have more spaces at the side, like disabled spaces, so you can get a child in and out more easily because you can open the door a decent way while you lean in to strap them in.)