Young women’s perceptions on safety in public spaces of Mumbai: negotiating the risk of sexual harassment and challenging patriarchy by transcending victimhood

Abstract: This thesis draws on ten in-depth interviews in order to analyze young and educated, middle-class women’s perceptions on public safety in Mumbai, regarding the risk of sexual harassment. It focuses on the ways these women negotiate with risk and the patriarchal norms of women’s appropriate behavior in public spaces, further, examines how these women address their oppression and act in order to empower themselves and other women. The analysis was performed with the Interpretative Phenomenological Approach. The findings were discussed relying on three key notions: the power dynamics of the public space, the asymmetrical socialization of gender roles contributing to women’s differential treatment within the Indian society, and the discourse of public safety, that centers on sexual safety and posits women as ‘vulnerable victims of attack’. My findings support previous research done on women’s access to public space in the patriarchal society of India. The findings emphasize, that women in Mumbai still lack an uncontested access to public spaces, despite Mumbai’s popular image of the ‘safest city in India’. Altogether, this study highlights that in order for women to feel an equal level of claim and comfort in public spaces in India, there is a need for a complete top-down and grassroots transformation in order to eradicate the misogynistic mindsets from the state institutions and the society, including the core family.