Led in Bedfordshire by Dr Joanne Hill, Senior Lecturer in Physical Education and Sport Sociology, the ‘She Runs’ study is gathering women’s experiences of running in public spaces to better understand how safety concerns shape participation in outdoor physical activity.

Women of any age or fitness level who run or jog in Bedfordshire for leisure, training, or exercise are invited to take part. If you would like to be involved or find out more, you can click or email Joanne.Hill@beds.ac.uk

The project is part of a 13-country collaboration examining how cultural, political, and geographical factors affect experiences of harassment and safety. Participants can choose from three ways to get involved – joining a group discussion, keeping a diary (written or visual), or walking their running route with a researcher during a go-along interview. Those wanting to get involved are welcome to take part in one, two, or all three activities.

Speaking about this research, Dr Hill said: “There are social awareness campaigns related to women’s safety when running such as Sport England This Girl Can’s #Let’sLiftTheCurfew, but we need more research to evidence the extent to which risk of violence and harassment impacts the physical activity levels and decision-making of women. We think that it is especially important to engage in international collaboration to understand different political and cultural influences on gendered violence.

“Safe access to running and other parts of public life is a human right as well as important for health. This research will combine international analysis with local knowledge to inform work with key stakeholders to address the effect safety issues have on women’s health and daily lives.”

This new study follows on from a report, co-authored by Dr Hill, which was released last year and looked specifically at women who prefer to run off road or trail run by themselves.

That report found that women had many influences when it came to deciding whether to exercise outdoors and highlighted some of these, which included ‘suspicious’ male trail users, whether the risk outweighs the enjoyment and the opinion of their families and friends as to whether they should be running those paths alone.