[net.women] Women's security

lewak@sdcsvax.UUCP (George Lewak) (06/19/85)

I am posting this as a request from a friend.  Responses may be
sent via postnews, or via email to me, Victor Romano (CO: George Lewak),
at ...!sdcsvax!lewak.

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	I have been following the rape/security discussion and have an
	observation to make.  This is PURELY ANECDOTAL; I don't claim
	to have done a statistical study.

	I live in a student house in a not-too-safe neighborhood
	(we've had one break-in and a number of prowlers in the past
	year, and one *reported* rape took place nearby; also,
	the police get called to the apartments next door quite
	frequently).  When I moved in, I asked that whoever is the
	last person up lock the doors (and turn down the heat, shut
	off lights, etc...).  It has been the case so far that male
	housemates are more forgetful about this than female ones.
	Why?  There are three suggestions:

		1) (tying in to the discussion more) is that man are
		not raised to fear intruders as much as women, so they
		aren't as conscious of the possibility and how to
		reduce its likelihood.

		2) My male housemate think (perhaps unconsciously)
		that their mere presense is an effective deterrent to
		criminals.  This is partially true, but in the case of
		the break-in, the man came in through the garage and
		threatened the woman living in the basement without
		any of the people upstairs finding out until "after
		the fact."

		3) The male housemates have been more wealthy than the
		female ones; perhaps the men were raised in better
		neighborhoods where one doesn't have to worry about
		locking doors, so they aren't "indoctrinated" in
		security issues.

	The anti-feminists out there may grab #3, but I know of
	several coed houses that have had the same problem, where
	people's income levels have been random with respect to
	gender.

				Ann