Hey, this is Vanessa. I want to let you know that this episode touches on themes of drinking

and sexual assault. There's nothing super graphic, but if you're listening with kids or this topic

is particularly rough for you, I wanted you to know.

You're listening to Nocturne. I'm Vanessa Lowe.

I've gone to lots of bars in the context of playing and hearing live music, and I believe

that anyone who wants to go out at night to a bar or club with friends or alone for the

purpose of hanging out or hooking up should feel free to do so and be safe. But that's not

always the case. And so here is the next installment in the ongoing series about women and the

night. I talked to some people who know a lot about bars, and the particular challenges these

settings pose for women. This is a silly question, but do you think women should be able to go to bars

by themselves? Oh my gosh, of course, yes, definitely. I do. I definitely do. Yeah, I mean, I tend

to go obviously to places where I know the people who work there just to visit and say hi,

but I do really like, you know, if there's a new bar and I want to check it out and I want to

buy a good cocktail, I would love to just go and sit by myself. Do I go out super, super late

by myself? Very rarely. That's just because better say I'm sorry. I would love to do that. That

would be great if I could just do that, but yeah, I'm probably not going to do that too often.

That's Mindy. She's a manager at Club Mallard, a neighborhood bar and Albany, California.

That's right near Berkeley. What do you see as particular challenges in the bar and club scene

for women? I think it's just one. There's the basic kind of intention about being a woman in the

world. And then there's the added kind of like it's in the evening. There's alcohol involved.

So I think definitely as a woman, you don't want to think that you need to be more careful

than a man, but I definitely think as a woman you need to be more careful than a man.

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