Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.
Skip to content

Let's Lift the Curfew

Creating safer spaces for women to be active – all year round

Five women stand in front of a lit-up bill board emblazoned with 'let's lift the curfew'. The women are wearing t-shirts printed with questions as to why they should feel 'cautious, scared, etc.' when getting active after dark

This autumn marks the fourth year of Let's Lift the Curfew, the national movement from This Girl Can aiming to end the curfew imposed on women by safety fears during darker nights.

Every year, the clocks go back – and every year, women’s worlds shrink.

When the clocks went back on Sunday 25 October, millions of women across the UK once again saw their world get smaller as the nights get darker.  

Safety concerns affect where they go, when they go, who they go with and whether they can be active outdoors at all.

Whether shaped by past experiences, stories they've heard, or not feeling comfortable or confident in a particular place after dark, many women are unable to be active outdoors or use public spaces in the same way that men do.

In fact, nearly three-quarters (72%) of women in the UK change their outdoor activity routines during winter, according to our data from 2023. This impacts women’s health and wellbeing and reinforces the stubborn gender activity gap which sees half a million fewer active women than men.

Let's Lift the Curfew challenges this reality to ensure no woman has to change where, when or how she gets active because of safety concerns.  

Since launching in 2023, Let's Lift the Curfew has grown into a nationwide movement, bringing together women, community groups, sports clubs, organisations and allies to raise awareness of the issue and create change. 

Last year, more than 13,000 people took part in over 390 activities across the country.  

The reality we're tackling

Research from This Girl Can shows:

  • more than half (55%) of women feel unsafe exercising outdoors alone after dark, compared with a third (33%) of men
  • 69% of women fear sexual harassment when exercising outdoors after dark – up from 60% in 2023
  • more than two thirds (67%) of women believe rising online misogyny and anti-women attitudes are making women feel less safe outdoors
  • nearly half (47%) of men admit they underestimate women’s safety concerns
  • almost half (48%) of men recognise they have to think about their own safety less than women do.

Deliver a Let's Lift the Curfew activity

One of the most powerful ways to support the campaign is to create opportunities for women and communities to come together through activity.

Whether it's a walk, run, or an existing activity adapted to support the campaign, every event helps raise awareness of the barriers women can face after dark and demonstrates support for women's right to feel welcome in public spaces.

This year, England Athletics and Good Gym are once again supporting Let's Lift the Curfew, helping to bring activities to communities across the country.

To help showcase the collective scale of the movement, England Athletics is also hosting a national map of Let's Lift the Curfew activities. Activities registered through their platform will appear on a national map, helping people discover local opportunities to get involved.

You don't need to be an England Athletics-affiliated club to take part. We welcome activities from running clubs, community groups, leisure providers, local authorities, workplaces or just a group of friends who want to support the campaign.

By registering your activity, you can:

  • help more people find opportunities to take part locally
  • show your support for creating safer and more inclusive environments for women
  • become part of a visible nationwide movement taking place across the country
  • help us demonstrate the collective impact and reach of the campaign.

Sign up your club or group

Planning an activity?

If you're organising a Let's Lift the Curfew activity, we've developed a guide to help you plan and deliver a positive experience for everyone taking part.

The guide includes practical advice on creating a welcoming environment, supporting women to feel comfortable and included, considering accessibility and inclusion, and thinking through the practical details that can help participants feel confident attending.  

It also includes useful considerations for event organisers, volunteers and run leaders, helping ensure that activities feel safe, supportive and reflective of the campaign's aims.

Whether you're planning a dedicated Let's Lift the Curfew event or incorporating the campaign into an existing activity, the guide is designed to help you deliver an event that works for your community.

Hosting a Let's Lift the Curfew run

Promote your activity

Once you've registered your activity, we encourage you to help spread the word and encourage participation within your community.

Social media assets

We've produced a range of social media assets to help you promote your activity. Assets are organised by the different programmes used to create them (Canva, PowerPoint and Photoshop), with guidance provided for each.

Assets for those signed up to our Campaign Hub, featuring the campaign logo, can be accessed via our social media asset library. 

Logo-free versions are also available, allowing any organisation to promote their activity and support the campaign and can be found below. 

We've also included a downloadable Let's Lift the Curfew flag design for organisations that would like a simple way to show their support on the day. Printed flags can be used in group photos and event photography to help connect local activities to the wider campaign. 

Let's Lift The Curfew panel asset - text on a magenta background Let's Lift The Curfew - Canva Download the file - 86.16 KB
Let's Lift The Curfew panel asset - text on a magenta background Let's Lift The Curfew - PowerPoint Download the file - 2.36 MB
Two members of Black Girls Do Run jog in a park with a #LetsLiftThe Curfew ribbon overlaid. Let's Lift the Curfew - Photoshop Download the file - 8.78 MB
The text 'Let's Lift the Curfew' in white on a magenta background. Let's Lift the Curfew - flag Download the file - 19.31 KB

Canva

  • The toolkit for Canva users consists of drag-and-drop components for social media (1:1 ratios).
  • Each component is transparent to ensure that our branding appears in the right place, size and proportion.
  • Simply add your hero image under the branded assets in the layers panel.
  • Then add your logo and you're ready to export.

Powerpoint

To add your own picture:

  • right click on the template picture above and select “Change picture - from file/this device”
  • navigate to your own image and select and click open
  • your logo should replace the template picture.

Photoshop

  • Please toggle on and off the layers as needed for Photoshop.

Share your activity

To help create a visible nationwide movement, we'd encourage you to share details of your activity across your organisation's social media channels, newsletters and community networks. 

When posting about your activity:
 

  • use the hashtag #LetsLiftTheCurfew
  • tag @thisgirlcanuk wherever relevant
  • use the Let’s Lift the Curfew stickers on Instagram stories – (search LetsLiftTheCurfew)
  • share details of how people can get involved
  • encourage participants to invite friends, family or colleagues

We're always looking to amplify activity taking place across the country and may re-share selected content through This Girl Can channels. 

Using Strava
 

If you're participating in a Let's Lift the Curfew activity we’re asking you to log a walk, run or cycle on Strava – at a time you feel safe doing so – and label it 'Let’s Lift The Curfew'.

You can share your Strava activity to your social media with the hashtag #LetsLiftTheCurfew and tag This Girl Can, explaining that these activities are to draw attention to the safety concerns preventing women getting active during darker months.

If you’re sharing it to your Instagram Story, you can search for the 'Let’s Lift The Curfew' sticker in-app and add that too. 

Celebrate your involvement

One of the most powerful aspects of Let's Lift the Curfew is seeing communities come together in support of women being active after dark.

We'd love to see photos from your event and encourage you to share group pictures, participant stories and highlights from the activity to demonstrate the collective scale of the movement. 

Local media

If you have relationships with local newspapers, radio stations or community media outlets, consider sharing details of your activity with them.

We've developed a template press release that can be adapted to help promote your event locally.

Download template

Support the campaign

Even if you're not running an activity, you can still help raise awareness of the issues that Let's Lift the Curfew highlights.

We'll be sharing campaign content, stories and research across This Girl Can channels throughout the campaign period, and we'd encourage organisations to engage with and share relevant content through their own networks.

By helping us reach new audiences, you can play an important role in raising awareness of the barriers many women face and building support for change. 

Beyond the campaign

If organising a walk, run or community activity isn't relevant to your organisation, you can still support the aims of Let's Lift the Curfew.

The action areas below were identified following a Let's Lift the Curfew parliamentary roundtable held in 2023, which brought together policymakers, campaign partners, academics and sector leaders to explore the changes needed to address the safety fears that limit women's freedom to be active outdoors after dark and continue to provide a useful framework for organisations looking to support longer-term change.

  • The five action areas

    Consider how your organisation currently approaches these five action areas and where there may be opportunities to strengthen your contribution to creating environments where women feel safer and more welcome being active after dark.

    Culture

    Education around respect for, and allyship with, women is needed from a young age, and women's experiences must be taken seriously, including the everyday behaviours and minor aggressions that can build to make women feel unsafe. 

    Consider how your organisation can help raise awareness of women's experiences, foster respectful and inclusive cultures, and create opportunities for people to better understand the barriers many women face when being active after dark. 

    Reporting

    Effective reporting frameworks are essential to tackling misogynistic behaviour at all levels. 

    Organisations should consider whether participants, staff, volunteers and communities know how to report concerns, feel confident doing so, and trust that appropriate action will be taken when issues arise. 

    Planning

    The way spaces and activities are designed can have a significant impact on how safe and welcome women feel.

    This includes thinking about facilities, routes, lighting, visibility, access and the design of public spaces used for sport and physical activity. Considering these environments through a female lens can help identify opportunities to make them more welcoming and accessible for women.

    Data 

    Understanding women's experiences is critical to creating effective solutions.

    Organisations can help by identifying opportunities to gather, share and make use of information about women's experiences, safety concerns and barriers to participation. Better information sharing can help inform practical interventions and support evidence-based decision-making.

    Community

    Partnerships have an important role to play in creating change.

    By working together, organisations can reach broader audiences, amplify women's voices and build a stronger movement to tackle the safety fears that contribute to the gender activity gap.

    Collaboration between local partners, community groups, activity providers and public bodies will be key to creating lasting change. 

     Hide answer