A study shows that women in Germany feel unsafe in large cities. Almost no women feel safe when travelling about the large German cities of Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne and Munich, according to a study by the German branch of Plan International, a children’s rights organisation.
For the study, dubbed “Safe in the City,” almost 1,000 women aged 16-71 were requested to place markers on an interactive map in city locations that they have experienced as safe or unsafe. Eighty percent of altogether 1,267 marked locations were classified as unsafe, for reasons including verbal harassment when jogging in the park, badly lit streets, stalking or unwanted touching of a sexual nature.
The most frequent reasons given for feeling threatened were encounters with people under the influence of alcohol or other drugs, badly lit paths and parks and lonely areas where no help would be available in the case of an emergency.
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Every girl and woman has a right to move about in her city freely and without fear. Safety precaution measures should be included in planning and structuring their urban surroundings to make them safer.
These reforms call for a change in thinking about gender roles in that, many boys and men still thought it was all right to harass women.
Underlying stereotypes and discrimination are the reason why girls and women cannot feel safe.
Where do women in Germany feel most unsafe?
According to the study, women felt most in danger after dark, with 806 of the 1,014 negative markers indicating evenings or nights and only 208 applying to the daytime.
A 2018 study carried out by Plan International in New Delhi, Sydney, Lima and Madrid made similar findings, with most girls and women saying they feel unsafe in those cities.
Source: DW