Joe GallopA Women at Night Taskforce has been created to address issues facing women in the music, entertainment and leisure industries.
The move follows the publication of a report published by the Savenightlife CIC (Community Interest Company) and Lady of the House groups, calling on businesses and associated industry groups to sign up to a Women at Night Charter that includes commitments to improve the experience of women in the sector.
The A Study into Women in Music, Entertainment and Leisure Industries at Night report includes the results of a survey of 1,300 women – around 40% of whom were women who worked in the music, entertainment and leisure sectors.
The results of the survey revealed that 91.8% did not feel the police force does enough to make women feel safer at night, while 84.7% agreed that certain inappropriate behaviours towards women were now perceived as “normal” within the night time economy.
The survey also found that 74.8% felt they had to adapt their working behaviours in a role to overcompensate for their gender. Some 60.5% had experienced an incident of sexual discrimination, harassment or assault in the workplace — with 71.3% of these instances being inappropriate touching and/or groping.
Furthermore, 39.3% of workers who experienced sexual discrimination or harassment did not tell anyone, with 73% of those who did report it feeling unsatisfied with how the incident was resolved.
It also found that 64.6% were not assisted by employers with getting home safely at the end of shifts, and 92.6% of respondents did not feel there was enough proactive support or guidance to help make women feel safer at night.
NTIA and Savenightlife CIC director of operations Silvana Kill said, “As someone who has been involved in this sector for 25 years, some of the results of our survey make for very uncomfortable reading. But it is because this has been uncomfortable that I know it is the right and necessary thing to do to move our sector forward. We are determined to fix the issues brought to light in this report, and that is why it is right that today we have established for the first time our Women at Night Taskforce and Charter to begin to address the problem head on.”