Susan Leadbetter, The Gender Equality Changemaker

I was about to start writing my dissertation as part of my WSP-sponsored studies at the time of Sarah Everard’s disappearance. On the evening of 3rd March 2021, the 33-year-old marketing executive was walking home from a friend’s house in South London when she was kidnapped, raped, and killed by police officer Wayne Couzens. The murder sparked a nationwide movement, and thousands of women started sharing their everyday experiences of unwanted sexual harassment on the street and public transport.

I was already passionate about women’s safety in public spaces, now I felt like this was a topic I had to address. I began my study with a comprehensive literature review to see what research had already been done.

I compiled a questionnaire which was broken down into four components; demographics, travel habits, perceptions of safety, and personal experiences. I also conducted one-to-one interviews with six women who had been subjected to sexual harassment and assault on public transport in London. I wanted to understand how it impacted them and if they have changed their travel patterns as a result.

I found that over 90 percent said they felt threatened when using public transport, 92 percent said their biggest fear was being sexually harassed or assaulted when travelling, and 28 percent had actually been attacked on public transport. They told me they had been groped, followed and had pictures taken of them. I was shocked to hear so many women felt the same and these things were happening so often. 

I wanted more women to feel heard, so I reached out to a number of influencers to help spread awareness. One of them, @lalaletmeexplain, a social worker with a female-focused account shared the questionaire to her 190,000 followers. Within 24 hours we had nearly 700 responses from women not just in every borough in London, but all over the country. 

Transport for London also reached out to me in response to the post and I presented my research to the team. They were already developing an approach to the problem of unwanted sexual behaviour, in line with the Rail Delivery Group’s national campaign. They’ve gone on to create an awareness campaign to highlight the common examples of unwanted sexual harassment that women face on a daily basis, such as catcalling, exposing, cyber flashing, pressing, touching and staring. Within my research, I found that there is so much uncertainty around what is and what isn’t classed as sexual harassment to a victim, bystander and perpetrator. One of the key aims is for women to know that if something has made them feel uncomfortable, they must report it and TfL will investigate it. 

The influx of responses to @lalaletmeexplain showed it’s by no means a London issue. WSP is currently working with Transport for Greater Manchester on a gender equality toolkit to improve safety for women as they move through public spaces and on public transport. It’s a resource to help them consider gender from the very beginning, to create more gender responsive and inclusive initiatives, interventions, projects and schemes. It’s currently focused on women, but the ambition is for it to be a resource to help all systems become more equitable overall. Seeing TfL’s campaign tackling this issue all over London, on the tube and at bus stops has been overwhelming.

I’ve learned that reaching out to people who are already engaged in the topic is much more impactful than traditional consultation and engagement methods. By engaging with these groups of people it brings their voices to the table, helping us to provide solutions and improve public spaces and transport for everyone.