This Girl Can x GoodGym

Let's Lift The Curfew - Women's Night Safety

Jacob Harriss GoodGym Wandsworth runner

October 04, 2024

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Public spaces remain a dangerous place for women in the UK, particularly at night. This October, GoodGym is working with This Girl Can to host dozens of special sessions across our 60+ areas to highlight this inequality.

In 2023, This Girl Can - a popular campaign funded by the National Lottery to support women and girls inclusion in sport - launched its #LetsLiftTheCurfew campaign. #LetsLiftTheCurfew alludes to the feeling of an imposed ‘curfew’ during darker winter months after the clocks go back. Launched in response to research which found that almost half (48%) of women prefer not to be active outside after dark and six in 10 (60%) women worry about the risk of sexual harassment or intimidation.

The initiative aims to address these concerns by calling for a safer and more inclusive experience for all women when getting active outdoors after dark. Around this time, members of the GoodGym community designed training to highlight similar issues and teach men how they can make people feel safe when out exercising.

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Both GoodGym and This Girl Can believe being able to exercise at any time is an important human right; women must not be excluded. In order to achieve GoodGym's goal of creating happier, healthier and better connected communities we must all have access to safe exercise in public space.

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Caroline, a GoodGymer from London, told us how fear stopped her exercising. She said “As a teen I only went out with my Dad running or in groups with my swim team or at school/university. When I moved home after university I didn't run again. I only started running through GoodGym due to the safety of the group runs. I only attended missions in the day as running to an unfamiliar location in the dark felt like a truly stupid thing to do...".

#LetsLiftTheCurfew found nearly half (46%) of women change their outdoor exercise routines during winter to accommodate a perceived ‘curfew’, with the fear of being active outside in darkness making women feel ‘anxious’, ‘vulnerable’ and ‘unsafe’.

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This year, GoodGym is holding group runs and opportunities for discussion in more than 60 areas across the UK.

Both men and women are invited to join the group runs beginning when the clocks go back. Men are invited to take part in the GoodGym online training beforehand - helping develop the conversation and combat the feelings of vulnerability women experience during winter months. The training was written in association with GoodGymers who have first hand experience - it is completely free and takes around 15 minutes to complete.

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