It is undeniable that women fear for their safety when they go for a run. A recent Adidas study of 9000 runners across nine countries to understand men and women’s experiences and perceptions of safety when running found that over 90% of women shared these concerns.
92% of women reported feeling concerned for their safety[2], with 51% afraid of being physically attacked, compared to 28% of men[3]. 38% of women have experienced physical or verbal harassment[4], and of these women 56% have received unwanted attention, sexist comments or unwanted sexual attention (55%), been honked at (53%), or followed (50%)[5].
Sadly, the study also found that while 62% of men recognise the issue, only 18% believe the responsibility lies most with men to help women feel safer when running[7].
In Merton, a cohort of local women are now qualified to lead women only community running groups, thanks to Merton Women Run, a council project to promote women’s safety and encourage exercise in the winter months.
Merton Women Run is an innovative collaboration between Safer Merton and the council’s Borough of Sport team, and was developed in late 2023 after a Merton resident experienced an assault when running before work one morning. Her feedback to her council support worker helped inspire and shape the project. The pilot gained funding from London’s Violence Reduction Unit.
The first Merton Women Run group was delivered at Canon’s House and Grounds’ running track by Mitcham locals and took 12 women who previously didn’t run through a Couch to 5k programme.
The initiative is supported by community safety partners including the police, and run leaders have links with officers to report issues like broken streetlights, harassment or general safety concerns, should they need to. Alongside their run leader training, run leaders have also received community safety training to help them spot and act on concerns they may have for the peers in their run groups.
Four running groups are now up and running across Merton, catering for a range of abilities with this number expected to grow in the coming year.
All runs are listed on the Merton Activity Finder, alongside hundreds of other ways to stay active in the borough.
Read more about Merton Women Run on Merton Council’s website, including comments by the women running the initiative.