No thank you to ‘women only’ carriages

This week, the shadow minister for communities and local government, Chris Williamson, suggested that public transport should have women only carriages on trains. I’m sure he said this with good intent; a short-term solution to keep women safe from sexual assault and harassment at night on the train. Other countries have implemented this policy too, such as India, Indonesia, Brazil, and Mexico, and there have been some successes. While everyday sexism may not be the top priority to some feminists, it’s still a problem, and just because it’s not the most critical issue facing women globally now, that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be addressed. I’m sure most women can remember a time where they have been harassed in public; it’s annoying, humiliating, and why should we put up with it? However, while Williamson’s suggestion was made in good faith, I strongly disagree that women only train carriages will be a workable short-term solution. It is a weak ‘quick fix’ policy that does not actually address the crux of issue at stake, and is far from the best way to stop sexual assaults and harassments on public transport.

Women only carriages won’t do much good at solving the issue of sexual harassment and assault in wider society. Contradicting to popular narrative, 72% of sexual harassment experienced by women is from people they know, compared to strangers, which is 26%. Most women experience harassment or assault in the workplace, at home, at University, school, in friendship circles, or from other relatives. In fact, when it does come to ‘stranger danger’, the most dangerous places are nightclubs and University parties where drink spiking has become common culture. While it’s true there has been a significant increase in harassment on public transport, and this should not go ignored, it’s not the most common place for sexual harassment. Spending the money and the time to introduce women only carriages would have trivial effect on curbing sexual harassment and assault in society. If we are to target ‘stranger danger it would be more useful to put resources into tackling drink spiking, or training bar/club staff to be able to deal with situations of sexual harassment when it happens to customers, such as the very successful ‘Ask for Angela’ campaign, which originated in Lincolnshire, and has now been adopted by the Metropolitan Police.

However, the increase in sexual harassment on the underground still needs to be addressed, and measures do need to be put in place. I’ve seen feminists say that this ‘short term solution’ of women only carriages are still necessary. They argue that while it’s all very well to say that ‘society should change’ and that we should teach people to not harass, that’s going to take a long time. That fact isn’t a comfort when you’re alone and frightened on the tube. The problem I have with this argument is how short will this ‘short term’ solution be? When will we decide that harassment/assault levels are low enough to discontinue the scheme? When will we decide that other long-term plans for curbing sexual harassment and assault have been successful enough so that these carriages are no longer needed? It’s likely to be a project that will linger on, and just encourage segregation. We should never be looking at short term solutions for big issues. ‘All female carriages’ is the archetype of a show policy; a policy where it looks like the authorities are doing something to combat the problem, when it actually lingers on, and efforts could be put in elsewhere to curb it. The reality is that long term plans and properly thought out policy is what is needed. While I understand the sympathy for women’s carriages and women being tired of waiting for solutions, policies that have the future in sight are far more effective.

Finally, women’s only carriages reinforce bad stereotypes of sexual assault in the UK. Going back to my first point, the public narrative that most assaults are done by strangers is contradictory to the statistical evidence. Most women have probably been in a situation where they have been alone on a tube with a random man, and they feel threatened. However, in most cases, it isn’t the man that’s threatening, it’s just the systematic fear of ‘strange men’ that’s been ingrained into women’s heads. Most likely that man alone on the tube with you, is just an ordinary guy on his journey. Yes, most of us women have been in situations where we’ve encountered some dubious strangers, but most of the time strangers are safe law-abiding citizens. When the authorities promote the false and over-hyped narrative of sexual assault by strangers, it can lead to people being overly fearful of unlikely situations, and less aware of the fact that most sexual harassments and assaults are more likely to happen in the workplace, on University campuses, and within the family.

There are many other obvious arguments that I didn’t cover, as to why women only carriages are a bad idea. They normalise attacks, take away responsibility from the attackers, promote the idea that men are aggressive sexual beings and women are passive victims, have the potential to discriminate against trans and non binary people, and not to mention the practical implications of the potential for overcrowded platforms with under crowded train carriages. My main point though, is that a ‘women only carriages’ policy is a half-hearted short-term solution to an issue where more complex policies around education, and revision of the criminal justice system and attitudes within it are what is needed. We need policies that are effective, which don’t enforce stereotypes, and address the hard truth that to tackle sexual harassment and assault, we must pay more attention to what’s happening in our local communities, families, workplaces, and learning environments. 26% is still a considerable number for assaults and harassments to be committed by strangers, but a populist policy is too easy an answer to curb that statistic.

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