A mix of students from the University of Lincoln and members of the public marched down High Street in solidarity with the Reclaim the Night march yesterday.
Over 200 people took part in the march.
Speaking to The Linc, people showed up hoping to “bring more awareness to what women face.”
Cerys and Amy were there to “let women live their lives without fear.”
“People were concerned for us even doing this march” they said, but said they “weren’t worried, there’s a lot of people and a lot of security.”
There was a police presence at the event alongside the Volunteers from the Lincoln SU.
The Reclaim the Night march was started in 1977 by women in Leeds, following the police’s response to the Yorkshire Ripper killings.
The police asked women to stay away from public areas after dark for their safety, which sparked many women to protest what they saw as a curfew.
According to the Metro, some of the signs in the original marches read “No curfew on women – curfew on men”.
Many men also attended yesterday’s march, such as Tom, who was there “in solidarity and respect for women on night outs.”
“A night out is a night out,” he said, “it should be more fun and safer.”
Elizabeth, Janie-Lea, Ellie and Rebecca spoke about what motivated them to come to the march.
“We were all just wearing normal clothes and we were getting catcalled,” they said.
Elizabeth added: “There’s not a lot of support out there, if we can stop it at the cause, then we don’t have to put more funding into the support.”
Georgina is one of the many women who attended the march, she told The Linc: “because I’m not very fast when I’m in the chair- I’m quite small as well- people either don’t notice me or notice me as an easy target”
“You’ve gotta ask before grabbing a hold of the chair, I’m actually a person in here.” she said.
Zuzanna Romanska, VP for Wellbeing and Community at the University of Lincoln, gave a speech before the march started.
“Each year when days grow shorter, fear for safety grows, and each year you feel almost surprised it wasn’t you and scared that if not now, it will be you soon.”
“You may think marches like this one tonight are pointless, and I wouldn’t blame you. But if there’s one word I want you to remember from this march, it is persistence.”
“We have to nurture it every time our safety becomes devalued or ignored, and if it takes us each year to march, shouting the same words, expressing the same frustrations until we can shout no more, so be it.”
“We owe it to ourselves, and those who can no longer march with us.”