There are a lot more women in business in the 21st century and increasing numbers of them have to travel as an essential part of their roles. But how safe are they?
, founder of , points out how the statistics show how potentially vulnerable women who travel can be. “Nearly half of all business travellers are women, more often than not travelling on their own. The UK government has warned of the increase of serious assaults on women travelling alone”.
This is a safety issue and a gender issue, as Kathy explains, “Women travelling have different priorities to men, different information they need to access. When it comes to staying in an unfamiliar hotel, men may seek out in-room safes and fire exit locations, whereas for women the priority may be personal safety. Will the hotel room protect them from intruders?”
Research findings and evidence suggest that there is no equality of vulnerability when it comes to business travelling. From both a safety and a wellbeing perspective, women face more acute challenges.
“There are high stress factors touching on security and on lifestyle for women”, Kathy continues. “Business travel is associated with not being able to eat healthily, poor exercise opportunities, and travel stress increases with the frequency of trips made”.
Kathy’s company, ExtraVitality, addresses these issues with one-day workshops. Their next one, , is in April. “The idea is to address key issues around women’s safety when travelling”, Kathy states. “These include personal security, wellbeing, and time management”.
ExtraVitality is looking at the broad theme of women staying safe, then narrowing it down to a purposeful, problem-solving approach. Kathy describes how the workshop will have lots of engagement and interaction.
“Just because the theme is staying safe and well while travelling doesn’t mean it’s simply about women being victims, or becoming victimised. It is about practical empowerment. We’re giving businesswomen the tools to tackle threats to their safety, whether these are external or coming from health and stress-related issues”.
The workshop provides professional, practical advice from experts across a range of topics related to safe and healthy travel. This is a growing issue affecting a large number of women in business. Kathy Lewis and ExtraVitality are doing their bit to address it.
For more information on ExtraVitality’s workshop, call 0208 536 4100 or visit .
