Are women-only carriages a solution?

A women-only train carriage in Japan (Picture: Yoshi)

Some 70 percent of women in Britain have experienced harassment in public spaces. That rises to 86 percent for women between 18 and 24 years old.

The Angiolini Inquiry, set up in the wake of Sarah Everard’s murder by a serving police officer, published a report last week. It found that women and girls are still being failed.

It reported that there is a “critical failure” in preventing “sexually motivated crimes against women in public”.

And dark winter nights mean that many young women are trapped in their homes. A report by Girlguiding published this year discovered that 85 percent of girls aged between 11 and 21 avoid going out after dark. This impacts on their friendships, their social life and their freedom.

We know we live in a deeply sexist society where violence against women and girls is normalised, excused and justified.

But what can we do to make women safer now? Student Camille Brown has started a petition asking for women-only carriages to be introduced on the London Underground.

She says, “Public harassment of women on the London Underground is a growing issue and Transport for London’s approach is failing—we always see it, we do say it, but it’s still not sorted.”

Brown is right. In the first six months of 2025, there were 907 sexual offences reported across TfL services. That’s an increase from 879 in the same period of the previous year.

Brown’s petition has been signed by 14,000 people.

Some men take the opportunity of a crowded rush hour train to grope and assault women. And lonely late night trains and empty, unstaffed stations can be terrifying.

A report by the Department for Transport published last year asked disabled women and school-aged girls what they wanted to improve their safety.

They wanted more visible transport workers, especially those who are trained to intervene in an incident of violence against women and girls. They urged for campaigns to encourage reporting and clearer avenues on how to report incidents.

The RMT union reported last year that “evidence shows that properly staffed trains and stations support women and girls’ feelings around their safety and security when travelling and the presence of staff can also deter perpetrators”.

Trained workers are necessary for women’s safety whether there are separate carriages or not.

ElsaMarie D’Silva runs Safecity, a global platform for stories of sexual harassment in public spaces. Her data show that parks, public transport, markets and streets remain hotspots of violence. D’Silva supports safe spaces, but warns that they do not deal with the underlying problem.

“Women-only spaces can be empowering, but only if women choose them,” she explains. “They must never become quiet concessions that the rest of the world is off-limits. Nor should they reinforce the belief that public life is male by default, and female only by exception. The issue is not the spaces themselves. It is that the world still isn’t safe enough.”

We understand why women want to feel safe. But we cannot allow political leaders to focus on women-only spaces and obscure their failure to make society safe and inclusive for all women. Lots of organisations claim to prioritise women’s safety. Some universities offer self-defence classes for women but fail to deal with sexual harassment on campus.

Some online platforms advocate streetlights, discounted taxi fares for women travelling alone and online maps that identify well-lit routes. Those going for a night out are advised to be aware of venue exits and to have their phones charged.

These ideas might help. But women already restrict their lives to avoid harassment and violence. It is the sexist system that should change, not us.

Giving more power to the police will not keep women safe. The police force is institutionally sexist and cannot be reformed. It is part of the problem—not the solution.

We need streetlights, decent public transport, cities designed for safety and increased awareness of violence.

But women are far more likely to be attacked by someone they know, a partner or ex-partner, than by a stranger.

A woman is in most danger of violence when she arrives home. True safety is not the absence of men. It is the absence of sexism.