{"id":8446,"date":"2022-01-20T09:26:58","date_gmt":"2022-01-20T09:26:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/?p=8446"},"modified":"2022-01-20T09:27:04","modified_gmt":"2022-01-20T09:27:04","slug":"safety-of-female-runners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/safety-of-female-runners\/","title":{"rendered":"Safety of female runners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Following the tragic murder of Ashling Murphy as she jogged on a canal path in Ireland, Dr Laura Gubby discusses new research findings showing the perceptions of safety from female runners.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the revival of the \u2018Me Too\u2019 movement in 2017, the public uproar\u00a0in 2021\u00a0surrounding\u00a0the\u00a0murder\u00a0of Sarah Everard following her abduction from\u00a0a street in South London raised awareness of the considerations that many women make\u00a0daily\u00a0in relation to their safety.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time,\u00a0social media hashtags such as\u00a0#SarahEverard and #ReclaimtheStreets were widely used by women who\u00a0disclosed\u00a0experiences\u00a0of gender-based harassment\u00a0and\u00a0the\u00a0strategic decisions\u00a0they\u00a0take\u00a0to avoid such scenarios.\u00a0Described as a\u00a0\u2018watershed moment\u2019\u00a0by many,\u00a0messages from\u00a0organisations such as \u2018The Everyday Sexism Project\u2019, Women\u2019s Aid,\u00a0and others,\u00a0gained momentum as they\u00a0actively campaigned\u00a0for awareness and the need for change in relation to inequality, sexism and gender-based violence.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the\u00a0continuous\u00a0work by prominent organisations\u00a0and\u00a0raised awareness of women\u2019s ongoing safety concerns,\u00a0last\u00a0week saw the tragic murder of\u00a023-year-old\u00a0Aisling Murphy who was running down a canal path in Ireland in broad daylight\u00a0– another incident\u00a0described as a\u00a0\u2018watershed moment\u2019.\u00a0Recent days have seen a number of vigils\u00a0held,\u00a0including those arranged and attended by\u00a0running communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preliminary research\u00a0with female trail runners\u00a0has\u00a0shown\u00a0that, when running,\u00a0women\u00a0are continuously aware of\u00a0considerations and strategies to mitigate risks.\u00a0They\u00a0described\u00a0frequent\u00a0feelings of\u00a0fear,\u00a0vulnerability\u00a0and\u00a0\u2018fight or flight\u2019.\u00a0These\u00a0feelings\u00a0were\u00a0usually associated with seeing a lone male\u00a0whilst out running.\u00a0In response to which, they described diverting their routes, turning and running back on themselves, increasing speed and sprinting past, and looking over their shoulders to see if they were being followed after passing.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, runners\u00a0ensured that they were\u00a0aware of locations of roads and routes out of the trails, and took precautions like using technology that family members could\u00a0use to track them, and\u00a0changing routes and times that they run to avoid predictability. When uncomfortable on a run,\u00a0they described\u00a0turning their music down to\u00a0improve their senses,\u00a0or getting their phones out in readiness or as a deterrent to those around them. Finally, there was a perception that\u00a0darkness increased\u00a0risk, and no runners ran by themselves through trails in the dark, yet, all runners discussed recent, local, sexual assaults on female runners or walkers at times that they would usually associate as being relatively safe.\u00a0Times described as \u201clight\u201d or \u201cbusier\u201d, like 4pm, the time that Aisling Murphy was attacked\u00a0whilst running.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women\u00a0are encouraged\u00a0to monitor their\u00a0movements and actions to improve their own safety. Often, they\u00a0have internalised techniques in different settings and activities, such as running.\u00a0Yet,\u00a0violence against women\u00a0persists.\u00a0Awareness needs to continue to be raised about the lived experiences of women and girls\u00a0in various scenarios,\u00a0in a hope that\u00a0real change can be made\u00a0in relation to\u00a0gender-based violence and the resulting\u00a0impact that has on the lives\u00a0of women and girls.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Laura Gubby is a Senior Lecturer in the Sociology of Physical Education, Physical Activity and Sport in the School of Psychology and Life Sciences. <\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following the tragic murder of Ashling Murphy as she jogged on a canal path in Ireland, Dr Laura Gubby discusses new research findings showing the perceptions of safety from female runners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":242,"featured_media":8454,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114,3902,342],"tags":[1013,4205,4194,4197,4201],"class_list":["post-8446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-sciences","category-research","category-sport","tag-gender-based-violence","tag-inequality","tag-me-too","tag-safety","tag-sexism"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"authorName":"Jeanette Earl","featuredImage":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/437\/2022\/01\/female-runner.jpg","postExcerpt":"Following the tragic murder of Ashling Murphy as she jogged on a canal path in Ireland, Dr Laura Gubby discusses new research findings showing the perceptions of safety from female runners.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/242"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8446"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8457,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8446\/revisions\/8457"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}