Blaise Tapp: We shouldn’t feel the need to have to protect ourselves

Although most people’s horizons naturally tend to widen the older they get, I don’t think my own personal journey of discovery over the past 15 years wouldn’t have been so dramatic had I not experienced endless nappy changes, night feeds and endless questions.

It’s fair to say that the learning curve I’ve experienced has been even steeper because our eldest is a girl and I’m far more aware of the unique challenges facing women and girls than I otherwise would’ve been.

Personal safety is the most serious of all the issues facing females right now and there will be many who will argue that it was ever thus. Sadly, society doesn’t seem to care enough about the fact that much of 51 per cent of the UK population don’t always feel safe, which is why the comments made by Hollywood star Saoirse Ronan during an appearance on the Graham Norton Show were so significant.

During standard talk show banter between the host and the other guests, who were all male, we heard how one, the actor Eddie Redmayne, had been trained to use a mobile phone as a weapon for his most recent role. There were titters from the chaps about how ludicrous it was that such a small object could be even considered to be a weapon, before arguably the best actress of her generation, interjected: “That's what girls have to think about all the time. Am I right, ladies?” Cue loud cheers from the audience and it has been subsequently followed by an online and media frenzy.

Even though our sensible eldest rarely ventures out on her own we, like other parents, have spent years reminding her how to stay safe but even that hasn’t prepared me for some of the lengths that older Gen Z and Millennial women routinely take. One younger female friend, who lives in the heart of middle England, always walks home at night across the local garage forecourt as she knows she will be caught on camera and clutches her keys in fist in case of an unwanted encounter.

It is unacceptable that millions of people need to go to extra lengths to protect themselves in an apparently civilised country. This isn’t just a concern for girls and women - it is a situation we all need to help change.