Is segregation the way to make women feel safer on public transport?
The debate has been reignited after Jenny Gilruth, the SNP transport minister, announced plans to consult with women’s organisations on the issue.
One such organisation, Action Against Stalking, is firmly in favour of women-only carriages, which are already in use in countries including India, Japan and Dubai.
“If women feel unsafe, fearful or threatened by being on a train or a mixed carriage, they should have the choice of going into a women-only carriage,” said Ann Moulds, chief executive of the charity.
“We’ve got to deal with reality and not ideology. There are predators and opportunists who are part of our society.”
Some reports have said Gilruth is personally in favour of introducing women-only carriages when ScotRail trains become nationalised in April, but the MP has tweeted to say she’s been misquoted on the issue.
Still, the story has divided opinion. While some have shared their support of the concept, others have highlighted that it’s the behaviour of perpetrators that needs to be tackled here, and I’m inclined to agree with the latter.
Reports of sexual harassment and sexual offences on the railways have risen by 63% compared to pre-pandemic figures from 2019. This includes anything from exposures and groping, to pressing, upskirting, sexual comments and leering.
It’s clear that something needs to be done to tackle the issue. But women-only carriages won’t solve the problem when we know so many of these offences occur in and around train stations.
Recently, I shadowed the British Transport Police in Oxford for the afternoon to watch their new “women’s safety” initiative in action. I also interviewed women about their experiences – and it made for some grim conversations.
An 18-year-old told me about the time a man followed her off the train and out of the station exit after a night out. A 16-year-old revealed she’d changed her route home after a man “did laps” around her at the station. A female police officer recalled the time she helped a woman who was punched by a man in the station car park. And a 32-year-old woman recalled being “heckled” while waiting on the platform, plus the time a man sat next to her on an otherwise empty train.
When I asked these women – and others – what would make them feel safer on trains, there was a consensus that more staff, more lighting at stations, and better education for men was the answer. Not one expressed a desire to be penned into a separate carriage.
As Laura Bates, founder of Everyday Sexism, has previously pointed out, the creation of women-only carriages suggests that harassment and assault is inevitable, rather than tackling the root cause.
“Like warnings that women should alter their dress, behaviour or route, it suggests that there is action women can and should be taking to avoid being assaulted,” she said on the topic in 2017. “This risks playing straight into victim-blaming beliefs that embolden perpetrators and prevent survivors from feeling able to report.”
Women-only carriages would also present yet more hostility for non-binary folk and trans women, at a time when LGBTQ+ hate crime has soared.
If we are to have women-only carriages, would we also have separate carriages for other minority groups who are statistically more likely to suffer abuse? Hate crime based on race, disability and religion is also on the up. Where does this stop?
The only way to meaningfully tackle harassment of women – and other groups – on the railways is through education, and dismantling the systems of oppression and inequality that fuel the warped beliefs of perpetrators.
Without that, you’re not fixing the problem. You’re just pushing it further down the track.