Women can confidently continue running outdoors after dark

Every year, when autumn gets underway and the evenings extend from late afternoon until, seemingly, forever, a trend starts to emerge.

- Helen Coffey, The Independent

Sarah Everard

Articles and social media posts from women pop up declaring that they can no longer go running after work because it’s “not safe”. Every year, I completely understand the sentiment — and yet I also wonder whether that fear is based on statistical fact, rooted in actual risk. I wonder about perception versus reality.

I know that this is likely to be a “controversial” take — that I'll be accused by some of intentionally endangering women by encouraging them to lace up their trainers and run straight into the arms of a predator. However, I also know that fear is increasingly stopping women from living a full and healthy life, so I wanted to take a closer look at what we're really up against.

It's certainly true that women feel less safe exercising after dark, as they do in general, as soon as the sun sets. An Office for National Statistics (ONS) survey in 2021 found that 81 per cent of women reported feeling very or fairly unsafe walking alone in a park after dark, compared with just 39 per cent of men. Almost three-quarters of women change their outdoor activity routines during winter, according to research by Sport England, while This Girl Can found that 60 per cent worry about the risk of sexual harassment or intimidation when exercising in the dark.