With AAP.
Women are now being given the power to pinpoint the areas of Sydney they feel unsafe in a new app.
After all, women know – almost more than anyone – that harassment doesn’t just happen in seedy laneways after dark. An alarming number of women suffer in broad daylight, too.
The Free To Be interactive map launched in Sydney on Tuesday by Plan International Australia lets women drop either a ‘good’ or a ‘bad’ pin detailing their experience of a particular spot.
New research commissioned by the NGO showed the majority of 452 women surveyed between the ages of 18-25 frequently experienced harassment on Sydney streets.
While PIA’s head of advocacy Hayley Cull says it’s hard to say whether street harassment is getting worse for young women in Australia, it certainly isn’t getting any better.
“One of the impacts of how prevalent it is, girls are feeling desensitised to what’s happening, they are starting to feel as though this is just normal and there is no point in reporting it,” Ms Cull told AAP.
More than 90 per cent of women surveyed felt unsafe taking public transport at night, and nearly half said they also felt uncomfortable taking public transport alone during the day.
“We expected to hear about instances of street harassment in seedy laneways at night when it’s dark and they’re alone,” Ms Cull said.
“What has been surprising is how common it is in broad daylight and areas where girls are just trying to get home from school or getting the train to work in the morning and are facing things like being groped or being leered at or being shouted at.”