Reclaim the Run: Women unite to campaign against abuse and harassment

All endured some form of abuse or harassment – at work, school or on the street. But no one should have to – and these four women have stepped up to reclaim safety.

Adelaide mum Jeannie was jogging early in the morning when she became the target of a sexual assault. She was later advised not to exercise after dark.

Teenager Martha is regularly the object of sexualised verbal and online abuse from male peers. She’s been told “boys will be boys”.

And former politicians Natasha Stott Despoja and Kate Ellis have had to endure sexist rumours they slept their way to the top throughout their prominent careers. They assumed they just had to “put up with it”.

These SA women are now banding together to highlight every woman’s right to feel – and be – safe in public, at school, at home and at work as part of SAFM’s Reclaim the Run at Elder Park on July 29.

The event, supported by The Advertiser, is being launched on Tuesday by SAFM Breakfast Show hosts Bec, Cosi and Lehmo.

Former Labor MP Kate Ellis, Jeannie, Our Watch chairwoman Natasha Stott-Despoja, and Adelaide High School student Martha. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

“We should be able to feel safe in public, and we shouldn’t have to change our behaviours to do that,” said Jeannie, 49, from Adelaide’s southern suburbs.

Hers was one of two frightening attacks on women while out on early morning runs, just weeks apart in Oaklands Park, that prompted SAFM to set up the inaugural Reclaim the Run event in 2019.

Jeannie did not want her full name published after receiving targeted online abuse following the attempted ­assault on her.

“That victim blaming is part of the reason why women just don’t feel safe to speak out,” she said.

Adelaide High School student Martha said: “As young women we are taught to justify and ignore acts of violence, harassment or inappropriate behaviour targeted towards us, and when we do report it to those who are meant to protect us, we are told that we are being ‘irrational’ (and) ‘too emotional’.”

Martha helped organise a school walk out in June and weeks later a statewide rally protesting against sexual violence and the need for better sexual consent education.

Former Labor MP Ms Ellis said women of past generations would be horrified that there was such “appallingly” high levels of violence against women.

“It is 2021, it has to end now,” Ms Ellis said.

Our Watch chairwoman and former Democrats leader Ms Stott Despoja said that women’s safety was not only about consent and unwanted attention, but also about creating a “new normal” where women were respected in public and in private life.

Register at hit.com.au/adelaide/win/safm-s-reclaim-the-run-174300