Women’s rights campaigner arrested at Sarah Everard vigil calls for male-only Tube carriages as ‘they are the issue’
A women’s rights campaigner has called for men-only tube carriages, saying the ‘male majority’ is the problem.
Patsy Stevenson, who was arrested by the Met Police while attending Sarah Everard’s memorial service, said a men-only tube carriage would be a better solution than a female-only tube carriage.
In response to a UCL student’s recent campaign for women-only carriages on the tube, Ms Stevenson told Sky News: ‘It’s strange that this is seen as a solution. I think the solution for me would be to tackle the real problem, which is men.
“I actually think the problem is men, so maybe we need a men-only carriage where we put them all at the back of the train and then they can stay there and harass each other,” the campaigner said.
When presenter Wilfred Frost said the problem certainly ‘cannot be caused by the majority of men’, Ms Stevenson said: ‘It would be lovely if it were a small minority, unfortunately it is absolutely not.
‘It’s actually great to see on television the advocacy that you feel right now – that ‘oh, we’re not all, I’m a good man’ advocacy that a lot of men have – which sometimes hinders the advancement of women’s rights.
‘I think 98 percent of women report being sexually harassed and assaulted; “It’s not just random guys on the tube, it’s not just random monsters or ghosts, it’s men all the time,” he added – without saying which source he was quoting.
Her comments follow the 21-year-old UCL student’s petition demanding women-only carriages on the tube and calling on Sadiq Khan and TfL to ‘do more to protect women’.
Patsy Stevenson photographed being arrested while attending a peaceful vigil for Sarah Everard, who was murdered by off-duty Met Police officer Wayne Couzens in 2021
Leading women’s rights campaigner Ms Stevenson calls for men-only tube carriages
The change.org petition, now signed by more than 13,000 people, called for at least one women-only carriage to be installed on every subway line to prevent gender-based harassment underground.
But not everyone agreed with Ms. Steveonson’s counter-proposal for a men-only tube.
One user on X replied: ‘It doesn’t help that Patsy Stevenson claims on Sky News that ‘almost all men’ are misogynists [the] From where. “It’s approaching hate speech,” he said.
Another commented: ‘Wow. ‘I say on television that basically all men, not just a small minority, are responsible for the lack of safety for women.’
The latest Girlguiding research found that more than half of girls and young women aged 11 to 21 do not feel safe traveling alone on public transport.
There were 2,671 sexual offenses on TFL services between 2023 and 2024; Except for those not reported to the police. This represents an increase of 10.5 percent compared to previous years.
Women-only carriages have already been implemented in many countries. Japan, for example, introduced women-only train cars in the early 2000s to combat sexual harassment.
In cities such as Tokyo and Osaka, these trains can be recognized by pink or purple markings on the train doors and special markings on the ground.
Some argued his comments did not help the cause
Camille Brown’s petition calls on Sadiq Khan and TfL to ‘do more to protect women’ after she said harassment on public transport had become a ‘growing problem’ in the capital
Some improvements have been made in the UK to help women and girls feel safer on public transport.
In November 2024, the Met installed CCTV cameras at a further 15 bus stops across the city, focusing on quiet areas with high footfall and a reported history of crime.
Shortly after Camille’s petition was published, Transport for London announced that it would not consider women-only tube carriages.
Siwan Hayward, TfL’s director of security, policing and enforcement, said in a statement that the priority was to work closely with the police and use intelligence to identify vulnerabilities and target repeat offenders.
The statement reads: ‘We do not support the proposal for women-only rail carriages on TfL services, instead we are working closely with the police to ensure our capital’s transport network is a hostile place for criminals, including the use of intelligence-led police operations to target criminals and hotspot locations.’
