# data[].attributes.body
Doing late shifts as a radiography student, I was very uneasy to travel back to my accommodation as it was soon after the death of Sabina Nessa and I was having to walk a short way.

I have experience of male patients making inappropriate comments, removing clothing immediately rather than waiting for an instruction as sometimes it is not required.

I witnessed an older male patient making inappropriate comments to a female colleague and not complying to anyone else other than her. Another male colleague defended her which was good to see but she looked very shaken.

# data[].attributes.body
I think that there are many different people who are failed by systems, not just women. Feeling like you're doing something wrong when needing time off for poorly children is one of the biggest issues in most work places.

# data[].attributes.body
I am a first year social work student and this topic is very close to me for many reasons. As a women we shouldnt feel unsafe about walking out to meet friends and family, we should feel that we can go about our daily lives without feeling scared or intimidated.
It keeps taking serious tradgegies like the one of Sarah Everard for issues around womens saftey to be highlighted. If we cant even trust a police officer to protect us who can we trust? i hope there is more awareness and action taken.

# data[].attributes.body
Women's safety is a serious issue that permeates through society. Drawing on my own personal experience, as a teen, I was raped by someone I knew, in my own home. I reported this to the police immediately, and he was arrested. However, for me, the truly devastating assault started at that point with the police investigation. Humiliating forensic examinations, and countless questions with a blatantly accusatory undertone, 'are you sure that happened' 'a witness said they've seen you sat together, surely you wouldn't have done that if you didn't want something to happen' 'but you let him in to the house'. My attacker never faced justice. Fast forward 20 years, and a close friend confided in me that her teenage child had been abused by a family friend. I supported them throughout the process of reporting the abuse to the police. Devastated to find that the same old narrative of 'its your word against his' has not changed. And yet again, another abuser walks free.
How can we encourage victims to stand up and speak out, when the very support networks push them back down again.
I struggle to think of any crimes other than sexual assault, where victims are blamed, punished, and vilified in this way.

# data[].attributes.body
I am a mature student and currently on placement. My latest incident with feeling unsafe as a woman was a couple of weeks ago on placement with a qualified professional who heard from someone that I was a divorcee and immediately made advances towards me even though I made it clear I wasn't interested to the point I felt uncomfortable and not able to focus on placement learning. I spoke to the senior in charge about it and she was able to relocate me to a different area and she was also going to have a chat with him. Some men seem to think that we should be happy with unwanted attention.....ugh!

# data[].attributes.headline
Women's Safety in and out of the Workplace

# data[].attributes.subject
Women's Safety in and out of the Workplace

# data[].attributes.body
I am currently a Stage 1 mature student on the BA (hons) Health and Social Care undergraduate programme. I have not worked in H&SC but have experienced discrimination throughout my working life. I am from mainly a finance background. The worst experience I had was when I was a trainee Charted Accountant with a major firm. I worked hard to prove myself along with other female colleagues and just got to the last level within my qualification, when it was announced that we were moving office (during recession of 90's). Totally out of the blue, all the female final year students working in the practice found ourselves out of work for one reason or another (all of us had got married that year). They manipulated the legislation to justify their decision and despite joining forces, we were unable to get justice. None of us was able to go and work for another practice and consequently did not qualify. All our previous examinations were lost over time and we never had the opportunity to recommence our careers. I did get employment with a smaller accountancy firm but my employer tried to make advances to me so I literally got up and walked out. I am also a keen motorcyclist. I have ridden with local police riders at events and constantly get treated completely different. I personally feel that over thirty years, nothing seems to have changed. Women still experience discrimination in the workplace and sadly are not still able to walk the streets without verbal and physical abuse/attacks. When is this going to change?

# data[].attributes.headline
Women are tired & more needs to be done. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Women are tired & more needs to be done. 

# data[].attributes.body
I currently study as a mature student as an undergrad for a Psychology degree but my professional background is varied. I have worked within private services where there is a culture of women trying to break the glass ceiling is difficult and many women I know have had to endure misogyny within the workplace (physical and verbal) and have either assimilated their behaviours to be ‘masculine’ to be acceptable or due to stress/increased workloads have been unable to continue and left. I left partly due to this but have since worked in the NHS, county councils, schools and Police and this internalised misogyny and learnt behaviours is paramount everywhere. I have worked with senior management teams, and they do not even think it is such an issue and it is not on their ‘doorstep’ – it’s the Others. (After the Sarah E uproar, I had a training presentation to attend that was rolled out to all police officers and staff and it was conducted by a senior male officer and no woman’s opinion had been sought or consulted on the training output!) Anyone within these bigger organisational structure’s fears speaking out & being a whistle-blower about any sensitive issues as they have been burnt before when raising issues against employers or patients/families, or due to the cultures within the organisations (with all good intentions) are difficult to erase as it conforms to a cis-heteronormative way. People that I know that do call out for change in these power structures are still labelled as 'difficult' (even with allies) and shunned by their collective teams as allegations are investigated and they are marginalised.

From a personal perspective, it may just be post-pandemic feels but I am exhausted as an Asian bisexual woman having to explain lived experiences and perspectives that I bought up more than a decade ago and was dismissed for. It seems like this is just the ‘current trend’ for this season and will be forgotten as the whole system needs an overall from education, parenting (healing past generational traumas) to the wider societal impacts such as governmental change, media portrayals to social media now being a challenging mind-field. The reporting itself is fundamentally flawed as exemplified by the differences from the Sarah E case to the Sabeen N death.
(Sorry for the ramble as it's an emotive subject but i look forward to the discussion!)

# data[].attributes.body
As a radiography student, I’ve found that I still receive the same comments and remarks as I have done in any other profession. Whether this be comments from service users or other staff members. My personal experiences have lead me to believe the majority of men feel entitled to be able to talk to women in a certain way, or make inappropriate comments. I struggle with confrontation therefore I usually find myself just laughing it off or making a joke back, however that is just to get myself out of the situation.
Whilst some comments can be innocent, it’s hard to differentiate.
I’m a mature student, meaning I have worked in various places before this, and I have received countless suggestive comments and sexual innuendos over the years. Many that do leave you feeling vulnerable and violated at times, even though I do feel like the men don’t always see the problem with this.
I think the tragic death of Sarah Everard hit home for a lot of people, in the sense of we can barely trust the men around us, and even the policemen aren’t to be trusted. This leaves women in a predicament, and the advice given to us following this event was shocking to say the least.
Personally, I still feel as though the way we look, our clothes, our makeup, our attitudes are being blamed for the horrific crimes that take place against women, and something has got to change.
As I have got older I can stand up for myself a bit more, and I pray I can teach my daughters how to protect themselves fully.

# data[].attributes.headline
The misogyny is coming from inside the house 

# data[].attributes.subject
The misogyny is coming from inside the house 

# data[].attributes.body
I can not count the amount of sexual comments or 'jokes' I have been subject to in my career and certainly in my younger career days I would have either uncomfortably laughed them off, excused the behaviour due to the persons vulnerability or accepted it as me being sensitive. The aggressive driven comments were mainly service users who weren't happy with decisions being made about their safety around children but I have to say colleagues were also guilty of making misogynistic comments and statements too and this for me has always felt worse!

I have had 🤬 threats from men where my testimony has led to them not having access to their children - and as unerving as that is I understand that I am likely the first woman to say no to them so they revert to type and use threats of violence to try and silence me.

I have also stood with police officers on child protection visits who have made jokes about sex workers and whether 🤬 can really be 🤬 in that industry.

However, its important to remember that women feeling at risk is not driven from service users and can 100% be in the workforce.  I had a male colleague say to me "wear that dress again it makes me day better" whilst standing very close to me! What was made worse was my female colleagues who at the time stated my clothing 'would do that' and maybe I should rethink my wardrobe if it bothered me.

I avoided being at work too early incase I happened to be alone in the building with him and when I finally had the courage to call it out directly with him he looked horrified and stated it was a joke and I had taken it out of context (talk about gaslighting). Interestingly the one person who really pushed me to action this was a male colleague which gave me faith in men as allies.

Social Workers go in to situations alone where police only go in twos and I think that says a lot about risk. We have to have serious conversations about not taking a defensive approach ie "not all men" and thinking about how we can work together to stamp out fear that women feel!

I really look forward to the cake and debate!

# data[].attributes.headline
Protecting new colleagues from sexual harassment

# data[].attributes.subject
Protecting new colleagues from sexual harassment

# data[].attributes.body
“As a youth work manager, I recall employing a young woman who received a lot of attention from the young people aged 15-19 at her interview. I had to work with the whole team to anticipate the sort of attention she may receive and consider how to work as a team to keep her safe, empower her agency yet recognise that testosterone fuelled young men could make her role challenging. We agreed a code (nose scratching!) whereby unless she specifically wanted to challenge herself, we insisted the male staff called out any sexualised comments or objectification first. I strongly feel men need to step up as allies and advocates in the workplace.  However I remember teaching 16-18 year old health and social care students who went on placement with men with dementia who’s language and behaviour was awful yet somehow excused based on their health conditions. This behaviour included physical assaults (slapping their backsides) and very profane sexualised language. The response from agencies varied widely.”

# data[].attributes.body
Unfortunately, the topic of ‘women’s safety’ within the workplace is one that I am all too familiar with on a personal level. Coming from a nursing background in Neuro critical care, meant that our patients were often experiencing acute changes in their neurological status, ranging from traumatic brain injuries to delirium. This meant that they were often in a state of confusion and social disinhibition, which all to often resulted in them firing abusive or inappropriate behaviour towards the female nurses. I recall one time in particular turning up to a shift and being knocked to the floor by a patient who moments before was unconscious, he then shouted at me to ‘wash the dishes’. As it unfolded, in his state of delirium, the patient believed I was his wife, who he had abused for several years. From a personal perspective I find this challenging and believe we should have less tolerance for this behaviour, and yet, I also believe that the patient is entitled to care without judgement, and this is a key aspect of my professional code of conduct. - Faith Vargas