The tragic death of Sarah Everard has sparked a huge national conversation around negative behaviour by men towards women, and has led to calls for more to be done to make women feel safer while out alone.

Women up and down the country have taken to social media following 33-year-old Sarah's disappearance to share their experiences of being followed, catcalled and more, when out alone. The Herts Ad has also had several responses from women after we asked readers to fill out a survey online.

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One St Albans woman wrote: "There are times of day (or night) where I wouldn’t be comfortable walking on my own, but I think this applies to males and females and there are certain areas I wouldn’t want to walk alone in either. What happened to Sarah is awful and society needs to change but I can’t see this being a quick process."

When asked for her comments on this issue, another St Albans woman responded by saying: "Because women are more vulnerable than men - I fear attacks where someone is stronger than me, and want to steal my phone or worse, harm me."

A handful of respondents highlighted the issues across our district when it comes to how well lit roads, footpaths and bridleways are, and that better CCTV coverage would help them feel reassured.

Addressing her fear of attack, one woman recounted: "I don't even realise that I'm doing it, but ever since I was a teenager, I have 'wolverined' my keys if I am walking alone at night."

Another woman shared her experience and what she thinks can be done to stop incidents happening again: "I don’t walk alone anywhere after dark. A lifetime of being told it’s not safe and several low level assaults in daylight (in London). The one time I walked from a pub to the taxi rank in town at night, I was surrounded by a group of young males and verbally and racially abused.

"Once again, this is about men’s education on the subject, which needs to reach across all communities in St Albans. Until men acknowledge and respect women, nothing will change."

A Harpenden woman said: "You never know who is around, especially when dark.

"[A] big issue in my area is car theft. If I was walking around at night what would stop them attacking and robbing me if they are robbing cars?"

A woman from London Colney also shared that men in cars or on motorbikes had made her feel very uncomfortable, by cat calling, making comments or driving slowly by her.

A St Albans resident shared her concern that, as a woman on her own, she is vulnerable, and that she avoids public transport because of it: "For some, it is a joke and seems to be a “right” to comment on someone’s clothing. But the fear and hesitation it instils in adults who should feel safe in their own town is no laughing matter.

"It used to be the older generation would correct inappropriate behaviour but this does not happen any more for fear of retribution. Society has forgotten how to care for each other."

In our Herts, Cambs and Central Beds readers' survey, 44.9 per cent of respondents said they generally felt safe in the area they live in "some of the time", while 39.9 per cent said "most of the time".

Fewer respondents said they either felt safe "all the time" or "not at all", at 5.7 per cent and 9.5 per cent respectively.

When asked if they felt safe when travelling alone, 78.5 per cent said they didn't, while 21.5 per cent said yes.

The issue is now being explored on a national scale. On Monday, National Police Chiefs’ Council chair Martin Hewitt said: “All chief constables met this afternoon to discuss male violence against women and the experiences and fears that women have shared since Sarah Everard’s tragic death.

“While being abducted from the street is incredibly rare, violence at the hands of men is not. We hear the anger about the pernicious harassment experienced by women that limits their freedoms.

“This is a moment for us to reflect as a society on what we can do to reduce male violence, abuse and harassment. Many of the solutions lie outside of policing but chiefs were clear and committed today that the police have an important role to play.

“A key issue for policing and the criminal justice system is the effectiveness of our response to violence against women, particularly rape and other sexual offences, domestic abuse and stalking.

“Too few victims are seeing their cases go to court. For those that do, the experience is long and difficult. This has a serious impact on their confidence in the police and in the criminal justice system and means too many perpetrators get away with their crimes.

“We have contributed to and are waiting for the outcomes of the cross-Government rape review, which has been working to understand and address the reasons behind falling rape prosecutions. In the interim, we have launched and are implementing a Joint National Action Plan with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). It includes action to improve support for victims, help officers build strong cases from the outset and increase the knowledge and expertise of our officers and staff. There are promising signs as the referrals of rape to the CPS are starting to rise.

“We have implemented a Domestic Abuse Best Practice Framework with the CPS, and Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service that aims to drive up prosecutions.

"We are increasing the use of the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme, obtaining more Domestic Violence Protection Orders (DVPOs) and Domestic Violence Protection Notices (DVPNs) at court and strengthening the vital multi-agency collaboration to tackle offenders’ behaviour and improve the safety of victims.

“Chiefs reaffirmed their commitment to the work already underway to improve our support to victims of rape and domestic abuse and help them get justice. We agreed in the coming weeks to talk to our partners, victims’ groups and experts about what more can be done.

“We also agreed, again working with experts and partners, to consider carefully the role police could play in responding to street harassment. As part of this we agreed we need to further assess the calls for misogyny to be treated as a hate crime.

"The Law Commission is due to make final recommendations on this issue later this year and parliament will be debating the case for police forces recording where existing crimes are believed to be motivated by hatred of someone’s sex or gender.

"We share the commitment of all those who want to see a legacy of meaningful change come from the truly tragic death of Sarah Everard and we will carefully consider in the coming weeks how we, as police leaders, can contribute to that legacy.”

If you have thoughts to share on this, please email hertsad@archant.co.uk.