I am nearly 60 years of age, a mother and grandmother.

I was sexually abused as young girl by my stepfather, raped as a teen by a friend, and my children's father was a controlling and coercive alcoholic - experiences shared by many women.

My ability to socialise, meet other women, participate in the community is dependent on access to spaces that are for women only. The possibility of encountering males in these spaces discourages me from attending events, joining a gym or being anywhere that means I may need to use spaces that have traditionally been single sex.

I am fearful of finding myself in an enclosed space with any male-bodied person I do not know - physically intimidated and all too aware of the harms that can be done.

My world, already narrowed by my age and health, has shrunk ever so much more with the lack of women-only provision of changing rooms and toilets and the erosion of my sex-based rights as a woman to privacy and dignity within these spaces.

#unitedkingdom #survivors #trauma #maleviolence #safety #security #SingleSexSpaces