Women's safety when running: 'Why is it incumbent on me to come up with an answer to a problem I haven’t created?'
Time for education and to dismantle the patriarchy - but it's men who need to tackle the problem of women being harassed when running
Dr Ashley Morgan is fed up of being asked to solve a problem she didn’t create.
“People always say, ‘what do you think we should do’ and my answer is I don’t know. Why do I have the answers, I’m just telling you about my experiences.”
This article is the latest in a series looking at a host of aspects to women’s safety when running. It is based on our podcast on the subject with Dr Ashley Morgan, Angie Skinner and Michele Heller.
The Cardiff resident, who has been running - and experiencing harassment while doing so - for 35 years, is talking about what needs to change to stop women being hassled, assaulted and even killed while exercising.
“Men need to be taught not to harass women,” she told Running Tales, “but there is very little appetite for that. It’s all about how can women keep themselves safe.”
Part of our recent Running Tales Podcast special episode on women’s safety when running focused on possible solutions to the sexual attention female runners receive.
Dr Ashley, a member of the popular Running Punks group and known more commonly as ‘Doc’, fights every day for things to change.
But she is clear it is a battle men need to take up as well.
“Why is it incumbent on me to come up with an answer to a problem I haven’t created. I don’t do this,” she said.
“Sometimes I am outside and I am boiling, raging mad.
“We need men to stand up for us. Men live in a patriarchy that works for them. It doesn’t work for all men, but many men very much benefit from the system.
“It’s not in their interest to let us in.
“I’m ready for a fight, but when we speak like this it makes us seem like massive weirdos. But I actually think this is an appropriate response.”
Running Tales and women’s safety - Further content:
Angie Skinner, who lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee in the USA, said she’s had enough of women having to deal with harassment or think about their safety when they go out running.
“Instead of feeling frustrated or terrified when I’m out running, I feel angry. I am sick of this,” she said.
“I don’t think there is discourse between men about how they should be respectful of women. It’s a disappointment.”
Angie said she would like to see a “movement” across the world to address the issue: “We should have the exact same freedom any man does to do whatever we want. And we don’t.
“I don’t know how to change it, but I feel that as a community of runners we have to figure this out. It has to get better.”
One thing both Doc and Angie are clear on is that women can be abused wherever and whenever they go running, not just when it is dark or secluded, or because of what they are wearing.
“It doesn’t matter how I look, whether I’m just wearing my running bra or not,” Doc said.
“I still have some sort of harassment. If somebody is going to do it, then they are going to do it.
“It’s not about your body. It’s about the very fact you are there. A lot of men find it problematic when they see women outside.
“I’ve been sexually assaulted on the tube in London during the day. No-one else was helping me, and I had to shove this guy.
“He saw an opportunity and he took it.
“You can’t mitigate for that kind of attack or harassment. We don’t want to curtail our lives for something that might happen.
“It’s about opportunity. It isn’t about the dark, and it can’t be about the dark because so many people are harassed and killed during the day.”
Angie added: “The expectation is that as a woman you will defer to whoever it is, whether they ask you something or want you to move over.
“You are supposed to smile and be sweet. I’ve been running sprint drills recently - I’m out of breath. I don’t want to talk to anyone.”
Doc said that for her the ultimate answer is education and breaking the bonds of the patriarchy.
“I think it is about behaviour change. My children, when they were five were told girls couldn’t play football, and then that escalated to lots of other unpleasant things about what girls can and can’t do.”
Michele Heller, from Illinois in America, agreed men need to be taught how to behave properly.
“Men need to know from an early age what is and isn’t appropriate,” she said. “When you see women running, the big thing is to just leave them alone.
“We don’t want to have a conversation. I’ve been on the trail many times when a man comes up talking, and I know they are just trying to be nice but I’m already on edge and just want to left alone.
“Maybe a man is leaning out of the window telling me I look sexy because they think it is a compliment, but it is creepy and awful, and women don’t like it.”
Women’s safety and running - A Running Tales Podcast Special
This is the latest piece in a series of articles on this newsletter/website talking about women’s safety when running.
They are based on a discussion on the Running Tales Podcast, which featured Angie Skinner, Dr Ashley Morgan and Michele Heller.
You can listen to it in full here:
Our guests are:
Michele Heller: From Illinois in the US, Michele is a keen runner who has completed marathons included Boston, Chicago, New York and London. As a mother with a young child, Michele often runs very early in the morning, when it is dark, in order to be ready for the day when the rest of her family wake up.
Dr Ashley Morgan: From Cardiff in Wales and AKA The Doc from The Running Punks, Dr Ashley Morgan has been running for 35 years - and has experienced male harassment throughout that time. The Doc is a regular commentator on women's safety and the patriarchy, and one of those behind the Twitter hashtag #changethediscourse, which attempts to get people to think and talk about the issue differently.
Angie Skinner: From Chattanooga in Tennessee, America, Angie started running in 2014 for mental health benefits. She is originally from Memphis, close to where Eliza Fletcher was killed, and regularly receives harassment while out running - to the point where she will arm herself with pepper spray and a go guarded ring (a plastic serrated-edge self-defence weapon) for her own safety.