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Róisín Ingle: ‘It’s not our fault we have keys in our hands, ready to use on an attacker’

The Sarah Everard case raises a question: would something be done if men were scared?

Sarah Everard disappearance: police searching woodland in Kent on Wednesday. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire

Jennifer Ryan
Thu Mar 11 2021 - 17:18

“Women and girls are in danger. They are in danger just going for a walk,” Róisín Ingle told Kathy Sheridan on the latest episode of the Irish Times Women’s Podcast.

She was speaking in relation to Sarah Everard, the 33-year-old woman who went missing on a walk back from a friend’s house to her home in Brixton, in London. A serving Metropolitan Police officer has been arrested on suspicion of her murder, following the discovery of human remains.

Women are in danger whether at 7.30am in broad daylight or at 9pm on their way home. They are in danger whether they are old or young, whether wearing skirts or trousers, whether drunk or sober, whether wearing make-up or not

“Women are in danger,” Ingle said, “whether at 7.30am in broad daylight or at 9pm on their way home. They are in danger if they are old or young. Whether they are aged 69 or 33. Whether they are wearing skirts or trousers. Whether they are drunk or sober. Whether they are wearing loads of make-up or no make-up. Women are scared to go for a walk [at night] or scared to go for a run. Men are not scared doing these things, and I can’t help asking if men were scared like this, would something be done?”

She pointed to a 2017 Stanford University study that showed women all over the world walk disproportionately fewer steps each day than men. “The reason is not laziness,” she said. “Women are frightened off their feet.”

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Describing the “quiet rage” she and many women were feeling, she also criticised those questioning Sarah Everard’s decision to walk home from her friend’s house alone.

“The narrative is still out there that this somehow was the woman’s fault, that, if we really looked at it, this is somehow Sarah Everard’s fault. I just want to say really clearly… because I know a lot of people will be feeling and remembering experiences they’ve had themselves, it’s not the woman’s fault. It’s not our fault. It’s not our fault that we have keys in our hands, ready to use. And it’s not our fault that we feel unsafe when we’re walking along and there’s a man behind us, and we have to cross the road. And yet, as women, we’re told over and over and over, that it’s up to us to change our behaviour… and what does that do? Well, it shifts the responsibility, away from the choices and the actions of men.”

I don't know what the answer is. But it is not pointing the finger at women and girls, and telling them what they should do to stop this. The work is to make male violence abnormal

She quoted the chartered psychologist Dr Jessica Taylor, author of Why Women Are Blamed for Everything, who tweeted yesteday: "All this shitty advice you give to women and girls to protect them from rape, murder and harassment? It doesn't work, it just makes our lives smaller and smaller. It's a symptom of a society that has accepted male violence as normal and instead punishes women."

“I don’t know what the answer is,” Ingle said as she reflected on the “collective trauma” being expressed by women in relation to Sarah Everard, trauma that continues 40 years after the first Reclaim the Streets protests were held. “But I think I do know that the answer is not pointing the finger at women and girls, and telling them what they should do in order to stop this. The work is to make male violence abnormal.”

Also on the podcast, the Irish Times columnist Kathy Sheridan spoke to the professor of genetics Aoife McLysaght, the Social Democrats TD Holly Cairns and Dr Gabrielle Colleran, who explored whether Ireland would be in a better place had women been in charge one year on from the start of the coronavirus pandemic. “Yes,” was the conclusion of all participants after a wide-ranging conversation on the anniversary of the first lockdown. You can listen to the podcast here.

*This article was corrected on March 20th, 2022

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