Key findings

• The challenge of walking for women is a longstanding historical issue. When walking emerged as a more widely-advocated form of exercise during the Renaissance, society simultaneously clamped down on women’s pedestrian freedom. By disentangling the long historical roots of the issue, we can begin to change entrenched ideas around walking and gender.
• The social performance of walking has been a missing element in the cultural conversation. Walking does not take place in a vacuum: its performance is influenced by factors such as gender, race, class, dis/ ability and age.
• Performance-based thinking also helps us to think about walking spaces. Judith Green has written that “walking cannot be understood separately from its environmental context.” As a result we cannot separate women’s walking from where it happens, and the safety of and access to such spaces.
• Drama workshops facilitated alongside Breathing Fire Theatre revealed that a behavioural change is needed to help women feel safe. An educational intervention with Key Stage 3 (KS3) and Key Stage 4 (KS4) children was identified as one possible way of achieving this. Dr Rycroft and her team are now developing an educational toolkit and workshop to talk about this challenge with KS3 and KS4 pupils. This project has implications for the content of the PSHE curriculum at a national level.
• We need to centre women’s voices and experiences when it comes to walking, taking a ground-up rather than a top-down approach. Drama workshops provide a means of listening to women; of affirming and honouring their voices.