"Many women have come to fear the city itself, since they feel that their own physical safety is at risk there. Much of their fear is focused on urban public spaces, such as streets, parks, and subways. Although most violence against women is actually perpetuated in the private spaces of home, it is those spaces defined as "public" that the majority of women fear most.
One of the results of this fear is that most women live under a self-imposed "curfew". They avoid walking in certain places, at particular times, and often will not go out alone... This behavioral response to our fear of crime constitututes a "spatial expression of patriarchy", since it reflects and reinforces the traditional notion that women belong at home, not on the streets (Gill Valentine 1992, 27)... This fear of public spaces is true for women of all socioeconomic classes, ages, and stages in the life cycle.
There are real risks to women who venture into the wrong street at the wrong time, but our culture also tends to exaggerate those risks, thereby keeping women in their "place" (at home).
- Joni Seager and Mona Domosh
"Putting Women in Place: Feminist Geographers Make Sense of the World"
