Hosted by:
Supported by:
Safe streets and services are the foundation of a full life. Women and girls shape their use of public transport and public spaces around safety, both actual and perceived. If we design public spaces and transport services to enable full participation from everybody, it enhances individual lives and, at the same time, creates significant benefits for society.
Join us at Planning for Women & Girls to hear fresh and meaningful contributions on what needs to change, and how, so that public spaces are safe, and feel safe, for everybody.
As women with lived experience of violence perpetrated by men, the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Alison Lowe, and I are committed leaders in campaigning for justice for women and girls and working to prevent harm before it happens.
As the first woman metro Mayor in the country with Police and Crime Commissioner powers, I am privileged to be in a position where I can influence not just the police service, but other services and businesses that can help to keep women and girls safe. This includes my responsibilities in transport, skills, housing, and culture, and working closely with the business community to ensure change happens.
Together we can make West Yorkshire a safe, just, and inclusive place for women and girls.
Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
Why it matters
A national emergency, and a sector that can act on it
Government has described violence against women and girls as a national emergency and has pledged to halve it within a decade. Transport and public space are where much of that fear is lived, and where the sector holds real levers to respond.
70% plus of women in the UK have experienced sexual harassment in public spaces, rising to around 86% of women aged 18 to 24.
1 in 2 girls aged 11 to 21 report feeling unsafe on public transport, and many change their behaviour to manage risk.
Around 36% of leadership roles in UK transport are held by women, who remain under-represented in core operational functions.
Up to 20% potential long-run rise in GDP per capita if gender gaps in employment were closed.
Five themes, one whole-systems day
Keynotes, case studies, workshops and panels across five connected themes. What works for women and girls tends to be safer for everybody, so the day joins design, safety, inclusion, culture and power into a single route towards change.
Theme 1:
Safe by design
How the built environment and services can be planned so that public space and transport are safe by day and after dark, and feel that way.
Topics:
-
Gender perspective in vehicle and infrastructure design
-
The night-time economy and travelling safely after dark
-
Safe parking and interchanges
-
Lighting, wayfinding and sightlines
-
Trip-chaining and planning for non-commute journeys
-
Active travel and the gender gap in cycling and walking
-
Safe and welcoming public spaces
Theme 2:
Report, respond, protect
What happens when women report, whether it changes anything, and how to keep both passengers and frontline staff safe. Shaped with policing and transport enforcement partners.
Topics:
-
Reporting and enforcement, and what women experience when they come forward
-
Frontline transport staff safety
-
Transport policing and partnership working
-
Being a useful bystander
-
CCTV, data and monitoring, used well and used responsibly
Theme 3:
Nobody left behind
Safety and access are not experienced equally. This theme centres the women most often overlooked, and the lived experience behind the statistics.
Topics:
-
Intersectionality, and why one-size solutions fail
-
Community voices on keeping local women safe on the network
-
Rural and small-town women
-
Transport poverty and gender
-
Young people and other protected characteristics
-
In her shoes: lived experience and case studies
Theme 4:
Men, allies and culture
Lasting change needs men in the room and cultural shift across organisations, not only women describing the problem.
Topics:
-
Men addressing male violence, in their own words
-
Allyship in the workplace, and what it actually looks like
-
Awareness and behaviour-change campaigns
-
Mentoring and cultural change
Theme 5:
Careers, money and power
The levers that move the sector: who gets hired and promoted, how budgets are set, and how authorities spend.
Topics:
-
Recruiting, retaining and progressing women beyond entry level
-
Gender-responsive budgeting: counting women so women count
-
Procurement as a lever, using buying power to drive safety and inclusion
-
Visible leadership and more women on the podium
Speakers: a genuinely diverse and gender-balanced platform
A platform that looks like the change we want
The full line-up will be announced in the coming months, bringing together transport authorities, operators, planners, policing, community organisations and national campaigns.
We are committed to a genuinely diverse and gender-balanced platform, and to hearing directly from the women and communities most affected.
Who should attend:
-
Transport authorities and operators
-
Planners and urban designers
-
Police and community safety teams
-
Local and combined authority officers
-
Campaigners and community organisations
-
Academics and researchers
-
Anyone commissioning public space and transport
-
Leaders raising women's visibility in their teams
Sponsorship and Exhibition rates
