Summary
Berlin lawmaker Antje Kapek of the Green Party proposed introducing women-only carriages on the city’s underground trains to enhance safety, inspired by a similar approach in Tokyo.
Kapek cited rising nighttime attacks on women and crowded evening conditions as reasons for the measure, which is still a proposal without legislative backing.
Her suggestion follows a recent rape case on the Berlin metro. The city’s BVG transport authority expressed doubts, arguing current safety measures, including 250 security staff and emergency contact points, are sufficient.
Those will always be a small part. If it’s culturally clear what is harrassment and shouldn’t be tolerated, it’s far more likely that 1) there are actual consequences to sexual harrassment because victims feel comfortable speaking up and 2) that bystanders will try to intervene. Both of which make it less likely for anyone to even try.
When speaking up is met with “you dressed wrong”, “he was just trying to get to know you”, that is the core problem. Adding “you were on the wrong train car” isn’t necessarily helpful.
Japans women-only cars are sadly necessary, but the focus should be on making them unnecessary, not adding gender segregation in more places.
The issue with psychopaths is that although they may be rare, they can have an outsized impact. It only takes one of them to victimize hundreds of people and create an atmosphere of terror.