The women who reclaimed the night
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 5 April 2021
⏱️ 13 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How women in the North of England took to the streets in the late 1970s to protest against a serial killer dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper. Police advised them to stay indoors to avoid being attacked but the feminist protestors wanted greater protection for women and girls. Rebecca Kesby has been hearing from Al Garthwaite one of the organisers of Britain's first "Reclaim the Night" march.
Photo: women taking part in a Reclaim the Night march. Credit: BBC
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:40.0 | Hello and welcome to this witness history podcast from the BBC World Service with me Rebecca |
| 0:45.8 | Kespi. Today we head back to the 1970s to the county of Yorkshire in the north of England |
| 0:51.9 | where a group of women decided to confront a prolific |
| 0:55.2 | serial killer by deliberately protesting at night the time he chose to attack |
| 1:00.7 | his victims. The first, reclaim the night march took place in November 1977, |
| 1:09.0 | in the Northern English city of Leeds. |
| 1:12.0 | It was organized by the Leeds Revolutionary Feminist |
| 1:14.8 | Group and was in reaction to the attacks of one of Britain's worst serial killers and |
| 1:20.4 | the police response to them, including their advice for all women to stay at home after dark. |
| 1:26.2 | It's quite a problem now that he's going to strike and continue to strike until he's caught. |
| 1:30.5 | Every woman is at risk. |
| 1:32.6 | How then can people, women, protect themselves? |
| 1:35.6 | Well, obviously a woman late at night or early hours of the morning should not be walking |
| 1:40.4 | out alone in the streets. |
| 1:43.0 | The best advice of course is not to go out and accommodate. |
| 1:47.0 | We were actively involved in saying look it's not realistic it's not |
... |
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