Powerful 2018 Free to Be Results and Archive Maps Released
Earlier this year we partnered with Plan International and Monash University’s XYX Lab to launch the Free to Be project in 5 cities around the world (Sydney, Lima, Kampala, Madrid and Delhi).
Off the back of important research in 2016 that found that one-third of young women don’t feel safe at night in public spaces, this 2018 project follows the success of the 2016 Free to Be Melbourne pilot, which explored safety-related experiences and perceptions of safety in the city.
In total, over 20,000 data points were collected across the 5 cities. All of the stories collected can be viewed via an interactive archive map for each city. (note: some of the experiences shared can be quite confronting).
Today, on International Day of the Girl, Plan International is releasing a new global report: ‘Unsafe in the city’, which uncovers the insidious and all to common experiences of girls and young women in cities around the world, including:
- frequent unwanted attention and harassment in public spaces;
- fear and experiences of assault and abuse; and
- inadequate or non-existent avenues for reporting incidents of harassment or assault.
Critically, young women with these types of experiences feel the need to change their behaviour to avoid specific public spaces. This can seriously limit their ability to move freely around the city and take advantage of the urban opportunities that many of us take for granted.
Sign the pledge to end street harassment: planau.me/say-no-to-harassment
