A Working Language for Women’s Safety
After 911, the aviation community established a system to assess threats in the airplane called threat levels. It included a checklist and a common working language to ensure all stakeholders had a common language which they could use to properly assess the situation and plan a course of action. Women can use a similar system to assesses their own personal safety.
The terms we use are Expectation Bias, Undesirable State of Safety and Situational Awareness. An expectation bias is making decisions based on past history rather than what you are currently experiencing. An Undesirable State of Safety is a situation that will probably result in serious personal harm unless immediate steps are taken. Situational Awareness is simply being aware of the resources nearby you could employ to help.
General Thoughts
You don’t have to do these in order. Obviously, you could immediately find your self in a threat level 3 and take the appropriate action. However, once you identify a threat level, it is imperative you follow the checklist to a conclusion. You don’t need to be paranoid, but you should always be aware of who is around you, especially when traveling. Pay attention to who might be listening to your conversations. When I was traveling around the world, I always carried a copy of the local newspaper so I would look like a local. Keep in mind facing an abuser might be new to you but this person may do this all the time. He probably is not used to getting pushback. Also, I think have a checklist like this will give women more of a sense of being in control.
To illustrate this in a real life situation I use an excerpt from my novel, Fool, Anticipation about a woman who gets date raped. World War II has just ended and 19 year old Rose Doyle, with the prodding of her friends has accepted a date with a soldier she talked to at the park a few days earlier. (The highlighted areas are things Rose should have given more weight to, rather than ignoring.)
