07/10/2026
WTUC will be there!
Reclaim the Night is back for 2026! But what is Reclaim the Night? Here’s what you need to know.
Reclaim the Night is a grassroots annual community movement that fights for an end to gender-based violence, sexual harassment and for the right for women and marginalised genders to safely walk in public spaces at night. The movement started in Leeds in the 1970s with a march as a response to consistent institutional victim blaming in sexual violence cases, where the police narrative would tell women to stay indoors, amend their behaviour and curb their lifestyles rather than holding perpetrators to account. This then inspired an international movement including “Take Back the Night” in the US.
In 2018 the first event was held in Worcester, organised by the Women’s Equality Party. The event has been running annually ever since (with an online event during COVID). In 2019 other local organisations providing support services to women experiencing male violence got involved to help organise the event and continue to do so. The event organisers include West Mercia R**e & Sexual Abuse Support Centre, West Mercia Women’s Aid and Out2Gether, and we are proud to be supported by the University of Worcester, Unite, Unison and the TUC.
Today, frustratingly, we are still fighting for the same things, and against the same narrative where victims are dragged through the courts over their clothing, the route they walked, how much they’d been drinking, even their sexual history. This narrative seeks to shift the responsibility for sexual violence and harassment onto the victim (hence the term “victim blaming”) and away from the perpetrators of the crimes. We believe that the only way we have a shot at ending gender-based violence is to clearly and consistently place the responsibility at the feet of the people committing the crimes, and to challenge the behaviours that feed into these narratives (such as cat-calling and other seemingly innocuous actions that come from a place of entitlement and seek to intimidate thereby reinforcing a power imbalance).
The event is women-led, and we encourage and welcome all allies to attend. As the concept of silence equalling complicity becomes more prevalent, especially in the current media, we are asking you to speak up, to join us and to proudly show you stand against violence against women and children.
