'AwarePods' for women are a joke, but new poll on safety fears shows why they aren't funny

Imagine a wireless earbud designed specifically for women. What designates it "for women?" There's only one bud, instead of the usual two, so women can keep one ear to the ground while they're out running or walking alone.

In a world where women joggers can buy a "Just in Case" sports bra with a hidden pocket for weapons, or download the "bSafe" app with a voice-activated SOS alarm, you'd be forgiven for not realizing the "AwarePod," as the Canadian Women's Foundation dubbed it in its new campaign, is actually a joke.

Not just a parody, but a powerful symbol of the lengths women and 2SLGBTQ+ people go to to protect their sense of safety every day, explained Mitzie Hunter, President and CEO of the Canadian Women's Foundation (CWF).

"They stay in well-lit areas, they keep their keys between their fingers, they're walking with a buddy or a dog and they pretend to talk to someone on the phone — they're really adjusting their behaviour to feel and to be safe," Hunter told CBC News.

The so-called AwarePod, with the tagline "better safe than stereo," is not actually for sale, and while it's meant to be a joke, it highlights a serious issue. According to Statistics Canada data released in 2019, one in three women report experiencing unwanted sexual behaviour in public.

And now new data from the CWF paints a stark picture of what Canadian women and 2SLGBTQ+ people say they experience today. 

Just over two-thirds of the women surveyed (69 per cent) say they agree they have felt unsafe in public due to the behaviours of someone else, compared to 58 per cent of men surveyed. It was even worse for those who identified as 2SLGBTQ+, with 83 per cent saying they've felt unsafe in public.

Nearly all of the women, 92 per cent, say they take precautions in public to stay safe, as did 91 per cent  of the 2SLGBTQ+ people, compared to 83 per cent of the men surveyed.

Just 32 per cent of women said they felt safe walking or running on or in a recreational trail, park or forest, compared to 61 per cent of men, and 42 per cent of 2SLGBTQ+ people. Half of the men said they felt safe at night, compared to 23 per cent of women, and 25 per cent of 2SLGBTQ+ people.

"Feeling safe in public is gendered," Hunter said, "and the fear of being abused is real."

The poll was conducted by Maru/Matchbox on behalf of The Canadian Women's Foundation. ​The survey was conducted from Sept. 20 to Sept. 27, 2024, among a representative sample of 1,512 Canadians. The sample was weighted to census.​

A study from Simon Fraser University researchers looked at what makes trails attractive to runners and joggers — and found some women are less likely to run in the woods for fear of being attacked.

Running deaths rare, but unwanted behaviours common

Running has arguably never been trendier, with race registrations at record highs, 4.7 million #running posts on TikTok and elite running brand Hoka's sales up 34 per cent this year.

But for many women who participate in the sport, there's a constant fear of being attacked or even killed, as several female U.S. runners have been in recent years. Most recently was Alyssa Lokits, 34, who was shot on a popular hiking trail in Nashville by a man who had followed her and attempted to rape her.

Crime statistics indicate that these types of mid-run attacks are rare, and that women are far more likely to be killed by someone they know. In Canada, just one per cent of gender-related homicides were perpetrated by a stranger, according to Statistics Canada. (The agency defined a gender-related homicide as solved cases where the killer was male, and the victim was an intimate partner, family member, or sex worker, or the killer inflected sexual violence on the victim as part of the killing.)

But that fear and awareness — as well as the experience of unwanted behaviour and even assault — is common. An Adidas survey last year found that 92 per cent of 4,500 women in nine countries reported feeling concerned for their safety when they go for a run. More than two-thirds of women surveyed in a 2024 U.K. study said they'd experienced some form of abuse while out running.

And recent research out of Simon Fraser University found women trail runners were far more likely than men to report being afraid of other people and losing cellphone reception. The women were also more afraid of running into other people than they were of running into cougars.

'Not just happening behind closed doors'

And, sometimes, women are killed while out exercising alone, like Vancouver's Wendy Ladner-Beaudry in 2009, Ottawa's Ardeth Wood in 2003 and Toronto's Margaret McWilliam in 1987.

In the U.S., there have been more recent killings, like Laken Hope Riley, Eliza Fletcher and Mollie Tibbetts.

"I don't want to finish another girl's run," Kim Clark, a U.S. running coach and influencer, recently wrote on Instagram alongside a photo of Alyssa Lokits, killed in October. She's referring to memorial runs or online movements where participants "finish" the run of the woman who was killed, like the ones that have been held for Lokits in the past few weeks with the hashtag #RunForAlyssa.

"What world do we live in that this is a thing?"