News Women’s safety
With the recent spotlight on male violence against women, how are outdoorgoers affected by the fear of harassment or violence? Hanna Lindon asks female walkers and adventurers to share their perspectives
ACCORDING TO RECENT RESEARCH, 97% of UK women aged between 18 and 24 have been sexually harassed.
The majority of that harassment –
80% – occurred in public spaces. It’s no surprise that three-quarters of women report anxiety about exercising outside, particularly in the dark.
As hillwalkers, of course, exercising outside is what we do. Our adventures frequently take us to remote environments with no mobile phone signal. We often hit the hills solo, at night, and with the intention of sleeping outdoors – sometimes alone or in communal environments with strangers, like hostels and bothies.
But going back to the research, a recent study estimated that only 20% of participants in mountain sports are female. How much is the fear of harassment or violence in common outdoors scenarios to blame for that stat?
Risk assessment
The majority of female hillwalkers who shared their thoughts with us for this article said that they felt safer in the outdoors than in almost any other public environment. However, many added that they still take the threat of male violence into account when heading off on solo adventures.
“When hitchhiking and wild camping through Europe in 2019, the constant threat of male violence and harassment greatly influenced my approach,” says writer Josephine Hall. “I had a tracking app so people at home could see where I was at any time, and I took photos of car number plates before getting in and texted them to someone. There were quite a few times where, if I’d been with a male companion, I would have wild camped. But because I was alone, I felt I had to go to a campsite to be safe.”
When we asked our female Twitter followers to share their experiences, many of them had experienced intimidating incidents or factored the threat of violence from men into their planning.
“Knowing and feeling the risks doesn’t make me not go and do it anyway, but it can take the joy out of it sometimes,” said @ElvyCurious
“I feel safer in the ‘outdoors’ than I do in cities, but still it definitely influences how I feel and act,” added @rachelsarah_m “As somebody who goes on a lot of solo adventures, there are precautions I take without even thinking and bad experiences I’ve had over the years. The fears and bad experiences don’t necessarily stop me from travelling along, but many nights
I’ve had have been tinged with a bit of fear. One night in my roof tent I even loudly ‘pretend-talked’ to an imaginary boyfriend because I was scared somebody was outside.”
Women from BAME backgrounds may experience a compounded risk of violence. On top of that, they are less likely to be believed if they report it – one study found that black women are less likely to be perceived as harmed by harassment.
“In some European countries, it was the combination of being female and black (mixed race) that heightened the risk of male violence,” says Josephine. “This is probably true for the UK too. Seeing an unexpected white man when I am out and about alone in the outdoors is very nerve-wracking.”
Avoidance tactics
Some women told us that there were outdoors scenarios they would avoid completely because of the threat of harassment. In particular, most agreed that solo bothying trips were a no-no.
“I think the only different action I take [due to being female] is not planning to stay in bothies when I’m out walking by myself,” says long-distance walker Kat Young. “It feels like a more confined and intimate space than wild camping, for example, and I’m not comfortable sleeping near unknown men when I’m by myself, and when there’s only one (blockable) escape route. Realistically, no matter how hard I work out, a man will almost always be able to physically overpower me. Whilst
I don’t usually frame myself as a victim, that kind of power imbalance can be more dangerous without witnesses. Of course, it’s not all men – but I have no way of knowing which men.”
Our Twitter followers agreed. “Tend to feel quite safe in the middle of nowhere!” said @cat_webster. “Exception is bothies which I avoid solo. Have had encounters which while merely annoying/amusing with a group of friends would have been pretty unpleasant alone.”
“Where’s your boyfriend?”
While incidences of violence against women in recreational outdoors scenarios are thankfully rare, sexism is an issue that many female hillwalkers face on a regular basis.
“I’ve experienced varying degrees over the years,” says TGO Challenge coordinator Ali Ogden. “It goes from casual, unintended sexism – ‘aren’t you brave to be in the hills by yourself’ – through to the more overt
“We live in a world where women have to make considerations for walking home in their own neighbourhoods where they live and work, so it isn’t really any different planning a big trip.”
‘where’s your husband/ boyfriend?’ and occasionally deeply pleasant inuendo. I’ve even had a stranger say on a hill top: ‘Oo, so you like to be on top then.’”
Ali’s fellow coordinator Sue Oxley says things have improved hugely in the past few decades. “Go back 40 years and I was seen as some kind of wonder woman climbing hills all by myself without a man to help me.”
But it’s an attitude that many women still experience today.
“Truthfully, I don’t think about male violence when hiking and cycling; but I have had several experiences of being put in my place by men as though I have no business being outdoors or on the fells without a man in charge,” @sally_welsh told us via Twitter.
Skewed perceptions
While there’s no doubt that harassment is a risk in the outdoors – as it is in almost all walks of life – most women still told us that they feel safer striking out alone in the hills compared to more populated environments.
“Of course all women do approach solo adventuring differently, in the same way that women approach all solo activity outside their house differently,” says adventurer Jenny Tough. “We live in a world where women have to make considerations for walking home in their own neighbourhoods where they live and work, so it isn’t really any different planning a big trip – we are always working on a level of being under threat.
“That said, most women I’ve spoken to share the opinion that we feel so much safer
walking alone in the mountains than we do in a city, so once we’re out there it can be a really happy place for us and feel like a nice break. Somewhere we can be free – for example, it’s the only place I’ll ever run in just a sports bra and shorts!”
What angers Jenny is the persistent idea that women put themselves in greater danger through backpacking and solo adventuring than they do by going about their daily routine. Is this protectionism itself a form of sexism?
“It really upsets me how often I hear women (myself very much included) being warned about backpacking and adventuring alone,” she says. “I think it’s incredibly unfair, and also I think it has a lot to do with a skewed perception on women’s safety – we truly are in more danger on our regular routes at home, walking home or out for a jog, etc. Nobody has ever told me not to take a late train to London alone, and yet I have been told countless times not to go camping in the vast wilderness by myself. And which one is statistically a bigger threat...?”
Could there be a danger that less
experienced female hillwalkers could be deterred from solo adventuring by these concerns? Mountaineer Rebecca Coles thinks it could be. “(Is) this something that women starting out are more worried about?” she asks. “It could be a barrier to participation.”
“Nothing but kindness”
Several women contacted us to share the positive experiences they’d had outdoors.
Jenny Henderson said she had “felt nothing but kindness from fellow walkers – female and male.” “I’ve never worried about this at all,” added Chrissie Crowther.
Even those whose experiences of solo adventuring hadn’t always been positive had encouraging thoughts to share. Josephine Hall said: “There is a lot to consider – as a woman, as a black person, as someone with long-term health conditions – before I go adventuring. But, of course, always so much to gain as well.. and I hope I encourage some people to go for it, despite the aspects of their identity that can sometimes make life feel restricted.”