On the evening of March 3, Sarah Everard was walking home from a friend’s house in London when she was abducted from the streets. A missing person’s report was filed the following morning, but a few days later, her body was found by police.
Unfortunately, Everard is not the only victim of these mysterious disappearances that end in the loss of a woman’s life. But her story sparked a long-awaited conversation about women’s safety.
From a young age, women are taught an abundance of lessons to keep themselves safe from predators:
- Keep your keys between your fingers or carry pepper spray for self-defense.
- Pretend to talk on the phone if you feel like someone is following you.
- Use well-lit streets if you have to go out after dark.
- Avoid wearing headphones in order to be aware of your surroundings.
- Travel in groups whenever possible.
The list goes on and on. But when women are being catcalled, harassed or assaulted on the street, these lessons never seem to matter.
Need proof? Everard did everything right. ABC News reported that Everard took a well-lit route that featured an abundance of surveillance cameras, all while talking on the phone with her boyfriend. Yet, she was still not safe from her male attacker.
Soon after Everard’s story was reported, women across social media showed an outpouring of support for Everard, sparking men to fight back on Twitter with #NotAllMen.
And they’re right. Not all men are catcalling, harassing or assaulting women. But all women have a story, and the vast majority of their offenders are men.
Amy Aves Challenger responded to the #NotAllMen argument in a recent opinion article for Newsweek. Though each individual man is not responsible for an offense of his own, “all men are responsible for the larger narrative of the culture in which they live and should reconsider how often they (perhaps unknowingly) contribute to violence against women with their silence, their habits, hashtags, language, relationships, and media consumption.”
Women cannot continue to face this reality alone. Stories like Sarah Everard’s will continue to haunt us because no matter how closely we abide by the lessons we were taught, our efforts are not enough. We should all have the right to feel safe in our own neighborhoods, no matter the time of day. So we need to collectively do better (yes men, this includes you) to spread awareness of the growing concerns for women’s safety.