Katie Walford

Why I’m doing this

I’m walking 60 kilometres and raising $1,000 because this matters to me personally. 

We’ve become so used to talking about the things women do to avoid violence. Don’t walk alone at night. Don’t wear headphones. Keep your keys between your fingers. Check the back seat. Share your location. Stay in well-lit places. Watch your drink.

We teach women and girls how to modify their lives around the possibility of violence, rather than asking why violence against women continues to be so pervasive.

And it isn’t only about physical safety. It’s about the everyday ways women are treated differently. Being called argumentative because you have an alternative opinion. Being called aggressive because you assert yourself. Terms that, in my experience, would never have been used to describe a man behaving in exactly the same way.

I know this isn’t just a statistic or someone else’s story. I have experienced intimate partner violence myself. I know what it is to have your sense of safety and trust taken from you.

At the same time, we’re watching misogyny become increasingly normalised and spread online, through the rise of the manosphere and communities that promote hostility towards women and girls.

I’m walking because I don’t want the next generation of women and girls to inherit the same rules we did.

I want a world where women can walk home without calculating the risks. Where women can speak up without being labelled difficult. Where girls grow up understanding that respect is a right, not something they have to fight for.

60 kilometres is a small thing. But silence and acceptance are not options for me.

If you can, please sponsor my walk. Every dollar helps support advocacy and action to end violence against women and girls.

Because women deserve to be safe. Everywhere. Always.