This Girl Can calls for action on women’s safety and freedom to be active

Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign is urging partners to back their Let’s Lift The Curfew campaign.

The campaign, now in its third year, is calling for action on women’s safety and freedom to be active.

This can be from fostering greater education and cultural awareness around women’s safety and allyship, to ensuring public spaces and outdoor areas are designed with women’s needs in mind.

Every winter, safety fears push women indoors. This Girl Can research found that almost three-quarters (72%) of women in the UK change how and when they get active outside once the clocks go back. 

Nearly a quarter of women (23%) avoid certain areas after dark. One in five (20%) constantly check over their shoulders. And with the onset of colder weather and shorter days, this isn’t just inconvenient, but a threat to women’s physical and mental health.

Kate Dale,  director of marketing at Sport England, said: “Every year when the clocks go back, women everywhere see their world get smaller – not because they want to, but because they don’t feel safe going out after dark.

“Women’s safety continues to dominate headlines – an ever-present, stark reminder that this issue hasn’t gone away. 

“And these aren’t isolated stories; they reflect a daily reality that too many of us have accepted for too long. Let’s Lift the Curfew is our response to that: a collective stand that says ‘enough’.

“Women shouldn’t have to change their behaviour to stay safe; society should change the behaviours that make them feel unsafe. 

“We’ll keep shouting about it until we see change and we want everyone to raise their voices with us. Because the more of us that speak out, the harder it is to ignore.

“Our movement is powered by community, empathy and allyship. When we come together, we show that belonging starts when everyone feels free to move.”

As part of the campaign, and thanks to the support from GoodGym and England Athletics, thousands of women and their allies will take to streets, parks and trails across the country this week, with more than 320 events from Brighton to Newcastle taking place this week.

These events symbolise a shared commitment to reclaiming public spaces and show that women’s safety when they choose to be active is everyone’s responsibility.

Brighton GoodGym is hosting its event on Tuesday, October 28 at 6.15pm, starting from the Queen Victoria Statue, Victoria Gardens, 1 Marlborough Place, BN1 1UB. Find out more here.

You can join a local event or host your own, logging your activity on Strava and sharing it on social media using #LetsLiftTheCurfew and tagging @thisgirlcanuk.

You can find links to resources here.

England Athletics have produced a guide to running in the dark for individual runners and leaders that we would recommend reading through to consider ways to keep safe during your event.

GoodGym have put together a training guide on male allyship to help improve women’s safety at night, which may be helpful to share with male runners joining your run.