Women's worlds 'shrinking' due to male violence

The Sarah Everard case has struck a chord with Irish women, many of whom have had their worlds shrunk due to male violence.

The disappearance and suspected murder of Sarah Everard in the UK has struck a chord with Irish women, many of whom have had their worlds shrunk due to male violence.

That's according to Dr Cliona Sadlier, Executive Director of the Rape Crisis Network, who said the case has reignited a conversation about gender-based violence and women's feelings of safety in the world. 

"I think it touched a chord for a number of reasons," she said, "this is your example of [..] someone going about their daily life, and moving about in public in a way that all of us do and need to do."

"And really I suppose one of the questions was, 'What is the message being sent to women?' 

"And the message being sent to women is the same message they've been getting for all their lives, which says the world is unsafe for them and we must shrink our world, to keep ourselves safer."

The reaction on social media has shown that this is the wrong message, she said. 

"What we need is our freedom and what we need to establish is how women can move about freely in the world and not have their lives curtailed by essentially men's violence against women."

Speaking on Morning Ireland, Dr Sadlier said violence against women is shrinking women's worlds and undermining any attempt to bring about gender equality.

"It is if you like a tax on being a woman in the world, you have an additional labour, your headspace is taken up with it."

"You're shrinking your world the whole time or you're taking what you know to be a risk."

Dr Sadlier said men are often seen as the gender which takes risks, "in fact women are taught from the very beginning that to engage in the public world, and indeed sometimes in the domestic world, is to take risks."

"One of the studies that I came across today showed that 14-year-old girls, the size of the public space they occupied was two fifths of the size they occupied when they were 11."

"When compared with her counterparts, fellow 14-year-olds, her world was a third the size of a boy's world by the time she was 14.

"Women's worlds shrink and they shrink because of male violence."