Women's 'Safety Load'

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In this post, we will discuss how a womans sense of safety is impacted on in various different ways. We are examining this to inform how we might develop a virtual safe space, and so that it may be possible to produce a design grounded in actual lived experience. 

Womens's safety load, refers to the significant mental burden women carry due to consistent vigilance, taking preventative measures against potential threats like assault or harassment in public spaces. 
This includes strategizing routes, assessing risks (e.g., keeping keys as weapons, avoiding earphones), and dealing with societal expectations, all while navigating daily activities like walking home or using public transport. This encompasses physical safety (avoiding danger) and workplace safety (unequal risks with tools/PPE, shift work), highlighting the everyday awareness and actions women take to feel secure, driven by higher risks of violence and the need to manage their environment proactively.

Key Aspects of the "Safety Load":

  • Heightened Awareness: Constantly scanning surroundings, looking over shoulders, removing earphones on transport.
  • Preemptive Actions: Planning routes, choosing specific times to travel, carrying items (like keys) for self-defense.
  • Managing Risk: Avoiding certain clothing (heels), being hyper-aware in darkness, assessing groups of men.
  • Mental & Emotional Toll: The stress of always being on guard, a constant "load" that men often don't experience to the same degree.
  • Workplace Considerations: Unevenly designed tools/PPE, different risks in female-dominated jobs (e.g., food industry slicing), and issues with shift work. 



Initiatives & Solutions:
  • Government & Local Schemes: Funds (like the SWaN Fund in the UK), safety audits (Westminster), and initiatives like "Ask Angela" or 'Street Safe' reporting tools.
  • Technology: Safety apps (like Epowar, Phree) that use AI or community ratings to assess locations.
  • Community & Education: Campaigns to educate men about these experiences, community-led safety events, and support from private security.
  • Industry Responsibility: Employers addressing specific health and safety needs for women, including PPE and workplace design. 
In essence, the "safety load" is the invisible, ongoing mental work women do to navigate 
the world safely. This is a burden stemming from disproportionate experiences with violence and harassment that necessitate constant risk assessment and management in everyday life. 

When environment modelling at Falmouth University, research was conducted into modelling for physical and psychological safety by designing a game level and aligning that with navigating real spaces around the natural and built environments in the local area. This forms part of the research behind ‘Shepherds Shield: Beyond the exit button’ research proposal. 

In the next post, will go on to consider violence against women in terms of domestic abuse. 

We will look at the roots of physical violence, and examine the way in which a woman might experience psychological abuse.

We will focus on the pattern of coercive control, that controlling men use to claim ownership of a women
in intimate heterosexual relationships. Not just to win arguments or avoid facing situations, but as a strategy to gain complete control of a woman’s life. 

The pattern of coercive control will provide a starting point in being able to think about how users are controlled in both screen based devices and head mounted display virtual reality devices (HMD VR). 

It is hoped that this will lead us to think about women’s psychological safety in immersive experiences, so that we can ask the question...

Are VR experiences designed to be both physically and psychologically safe for women? 



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