Women Friendly Leeds: It's Time to Join the Movement
Soon, Leeds will become the first ever ‘Women-Friendly’ city in the UK. This exciting news comes after Women’s Lives Leeds appointed Emily Turner to co-ordinate the Women Friendly Leeds movement earlier this year. I met with Emily to find out more about the movement, and ask her what makes a city ‘Women-Friendly’.
The concept, Emily tells me, is based on UN “Safe Cities”, which was established to address issues of women’s safety in urban and rural environments. Sexual harassment and gendered violence is still the norm for many women living in urban spaces, in both developed and developing countries. Women Friendly Leeds will work towards making the city a better place for women. Emily says:
“We just want more women to lead safer, healthier, more fulfilled, and equal lives.”
The Women’s Lives Leeds hub is made up of 11 organisations with extensive experience tackling the issues faced by Leeds’ women and girls. Their expertise will help steer the Women Friendly Leeds movement and make real positive change for the city.
There’s already a variety of voices behind the movement, as Women’s Lives Leeds support a broad range of women and girls with issues such as domestic violence, trafficking, barriers to education, sex work and mental health. However, it’s important to Emily that the movement includes an even wider range of perspectives, and is directly influenced by the women living or working in the city.
“Our vision is to become the UK’s first Women-Friendly city,” she tells me. “But the main objective is getting a diverse range of women and girls’ voices heard [and] to empower women to realise they can do it for themselves.”
Drawing on the many voices of the city’s women, including disabled women, trans women, sex workers and migrant workers, Women Friendly Leeds will help Leeds become a city in which women feel safe, and gender equality is taken into serious consideration by local authorities and organisations.
“The voices come from women and girls in the city and they drive the movement.”
To shape the change, Emily is calling for individuals and small businesses to make a pledge to support the movement in any way they can. For example, the Leeds Shotokan Karate Club is already working to empower women to use self-defence techniques to feel safer in the city.
Safety at night is a key issue raised by many of the women who’ve been involved with Women Friendly Leeds so far. As a result, Emily is working on a ‘Women Friendly Bars’ toolkit, with support from Women’s Hospitality Network, Northern Monk Brewery and Women on Tap. The toolkit includes proposals such as embedding training for staff around women’s safety at night and the ‘Ask for Angela’ scheme, allowing women access to toilets without making a purchase, and ensuring the safety of staff travelling home after dark.
This is just a preview of what’s in store for Women Friendly Leeds, and it’s up to the city’s residents to shape what happens next. “Anybody with any little idea, or any little thing that they can do, can join together and make quite a big difference,” Emily insists.
Women and girls can join in by becoming an ambassador for the movement, but men and boys are crucial allies too. “If Leeds is better for women, it is better for everyone,” Emily says. “We want men to be involved in that.” She’s very clear that the mission to become a Women-Friendly city will never be about vilifying men for the issues that women face.
“[Women Friendly Leeds is] a positive movement for men and women and families and communities.”
But when it comes to gender equality, Emily believes that “there’ll always be more work to do.” That’s why she says she’s not working on a project, as such, because projects come to an end. Women Friendly Leeds is a movement, and one that she hopes will continue to evolve and achieve change for a long time. It’s clear that this could have brilliant, lasting outcomes for the entire city - but only if people get involved.
“The thing that is going to be our biggest challenge is to get as many people to know about it and to get interested as possible.”
For Emily, Leeds is the ideal flagship for Women-Friendly cities in the UK. She describes the city as both brave and friendly; full of innovative communities creating incredible spaces for Leeds residents. It’s true – our hometown is teeming with inspiring people who could each have something special to contribute to Women Friendly Leeds.
So, if you want to help make Leeds the first ever Women-Friendly City, then join the movement today!
Be sure to sign up to the Women Friendly Leeds mailing list to keep up to date with all their news. You can also find them on Twitter and Facebook. Why not tweet @womenfriendlyls and @harpy_mag to tell us how you’ll take part in the movement?
COVID-19
Coronavirus may not discriminate, but gender inequality means that pandemics have serious consequences for women. If you’d like to know more about the gender impact of the recent outbreak, check out the Women Friendly Leeds report on The Effects of COVID-19 for Women.
