We all know how dangerous it can be walking home after dark as a woman and being by yourself. It’s unfortunate that we are living in a time where we have to be on our guard just because of other people’s despicable behaviour. But even now regardless of whether its day or night harassment is still happening. To make walking home that little bit safer, we’ve found two apps that help women to suss out the area they are walking in and to allow them to get safely from point A to point B.
The Free To Be App is one such example, being rolled out across five cities, it’s an interactive map that enables women and girls to pinpoint ‘danger spots.’ The app allows women to put a pin on an area that makes them feel safe and a pin on the spots where they feel uncomfortable.
The company behind the app, Plan International Australia’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 lane ways 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.”
Another groundbreaking app is the Companion app, where you can notify your loved ones of your journey home, such as where you started and the app automatically sends an update when your journey has ended. The app also includes live location tracking, letting your loved ones watch you while you travel to your destination.
SheSociety is a site for the women of Australia to share our stories, our experiences, shared learnings and opportunities to connect.
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