“All we want is to simply run”: Women suffer verbal abuse, intimidating behaviour and heckling while running
“All we want is to simply run”, a running club leader has said as she tells councillors of verbal abuse, intimidating behaviour and heckling of female runners as they navigate Fareham.
Verity Wright, head coach and founder of RunVerity, a running club now based in Whiteley spoke at a Fareham Borough Council meeting on June 12 as to why the club no longer run along Fareham High Street.
Having trained and encouraged women to run around Fareham for the last 11 years, she came to speak in support of a motion put forward by Councillor Gemma Furnivall (Lab, Fort Fareham) to adopt the White Ribbon movement, This is a global campaign to end male violence against women and girls, with a focus on changing harmful cultures and engaging men and boys in prevention.
Mrs Wright said: “All we want is to simply run. Go about our lives without being singled out or harassed.
She said all her female runners are of different shapes, sizes and ability, and “not the stereotypical type of what a runner looks like”.
“The hardest part of running is to get out the door. Then only to be met by shouting, heckling or unwanted comments that range from lude to sexist remarks about body parts or that we could run faster if we stopped talking,” said Mrs Wright.
She said, comments come from a wide range of individuals; workmen, young boys and teenagers. Along with intimidating and annoying behaviour, from passersby who throw litter and jeering from cars, to being aggressively kicked by a cyclist. Even threatening behaviour from a man on social media who said “he may have to get his gun and play sniper in the under growth.”
In the summer, the group no longer runs around communal sports fields as fathers watch their children playing football on the communal sports fields, the meeting as told. During the day they avoid building sites of new developments, she said.
“We no longer run through Fareham High Street. There are now more places we feel no longer able to run safely than places that we feel we can.
The group have had to change where they run, and meet to avoid dangerous situations and feel safe – avoiding intimidating and annoying behaviour that has been normalised, said Mrs Wright.
Mrs Wright said the last 11 years have been spent encouraging people to get active and run. And in that time not a week has gone by without being subjected to some form of annoying or intimidating behaviour, including heckling, and “animal noises” turning uncomfortable situations into growing avoidance of areas.
She often speaks about the benefits of physical activity for health, well-being and community. She sees first hand the confidence that running can bring to someone.
“Would any of these comments be made to a group of men,“ they ask.
Mrs Wright said, “Running is a constant calculation of risk. These are not isolated incidents but reflect a wider reality for women who wish to exercise in an open space.”