Individual Safety Perceptions of Women in Public Spaces

Abstract

Feelings of unsafety limits a person’s accessibility and usage of public spaces, especially for women as they experience higher levels of fear compared to men. Hence, gender differences in safety perceptions in public spaces have been widely studied among scholars. However, in such research women, and men, are often seen as a homogenous group, whilst there may be significant differences in in safety perceptions among them. Hence, this research aims to explore the differences in individual safety perception among women in public spaces of Holendrecht, in the south-eastern part of Amsterdam, using qualitative research methods like interviewing and mental mapping. Two identities explicitly come forward, women with a large social network, who are older, live longer in the neighbourhood and have a Surinam or Ghanese ethnicity, tend to report lower levels of feelings unsafe. And those with a small social network in the neighbourhood, who are younger, live there for a shorter period and have a Dutch ethnicity, are more in need of additional factors to enhance their feelings of safety. Such factors are familiarity and physical factors influencing visibility. These results indicate the importance of taking an intersectional approach, to see how social categorization intervene with different perceptions of safety. This way, decisions on maintenance and improving public spaces can be better informed to create more equal access of public spaces.