The Women’s Night-time Safety Charter

Inspired by the large numbers of pledges made for the Mayor of London’s Women’s Night Safety Charter, the Manchester Women’s Night-time Safety Charter is a new initiative by Manchester City Council to improve the safety for all women in the night, especially in the night-time economy.

This charter is to inspire action by everyone, and it is specifically aimed at employers and organisations who employ women between 6pm and 6am.

It is intended to encourage organisations to prioritise safety, of the women workers and the women customers in Manchester’s night-time economy.

We all want sexual harassment, assault, and other violence to stop.  But we all need to be part of the solution. We all need to commit to do more about it.

MCC suggests sorting out the four R's in your group or organisation:

The four Rs for personal safety

• Responsibility - Think - who is responsible for violence and unacceptable behaviour? The person doing it of course! But consider - is there still a victim-blaming culture in your group or organisation? If so, it's time to challenge it and to keep challenging it. If you are bringing people together at night, you have a responsibility to help to ensure their safety. So get together and sort out how you are meeting that responsibility.
• Report - If someone is harassed or attacked, make sure reporting it is simple and automatic. What happens next should be clear, with a range of options for how it can be dealt with. So discuss it and sort out what should happen.
• Respond - Speaking up takes courage, so doing so should be respected and encouraged through a culture of trust and support for those who speak up. Make sure everyone knows it, believes it, and acts on it.
• Redesign - Design and light your space to be welcoming, to feel safe, and to avoid enabling ‘opportunistic’ attacks. Walk it through with your female colleagues one evening soon, find out what they think, and then make some changes.

Join the MCC initiative, and find out what you can do to help by reading the toolkit.

Find out more on the Women’s Night-time Safety Charter web page.

In Moss Side too... Let's make sure each local group and organisation makes it happen, and effective, here in Moss Side. Local people often say this feels one of the safest places to live and work; let's keep it that way, for women and men too. We all want to be able to work late safely, and enjoy an evening out and about in Manchester without fear.

(This wording has been shortened from the MCC version, oriented more to collaborative action, and the photo added. Photo by PNW Production.)