Tessy Antony de Nassau's Zoom O'Clock with Entrepreneur Emma Kay
Manage episode 315494035 series 2832843
Emma Kay can speak authoritatively on women’s safety, women’s right to equality of safety on British streets and her own experience of gender harassment.
She is also an entrepreneur who is passionate about developing the WalkSafe app’s unique safety features and keeping it free for women to download.
Emma can also speak on parenting, as knife crime soars and young men in particular are at risk, meaning more parents and their older children are downloading WalkSafe.
Emma Kay is the co-founder of WalkSafe and her impassioned social media posts following the murder of Sarah Everard meant the free app was downloaded over half a million times in just two weeks.
Mother of two, she is determined to fund the app so it will remain free to women and other vulnerable groups.
A former beautician, Emma came up with the idea of the app at dinner with her extended family after describing her own experience of gender harassment and what she felt would help. Fortunately, her brother-in-law is a technology expert, and he was able to devise the first generation WalkSafe app.
Emma describes the WalkSafe app as the ‘app that shouldn’t have to exist’ but as the daughter of a policeman, she has a pragmatic approach to women’s safety and the WalkSafe app is testimony to that philosophy.
It is the only app to give users a live map which shows where recent crimes have occurred, so women can choose a safer route home. It also has a tap feature if women feel threatened which alerts their chosen safety contact and a ‘dead woman’s switch’ which send alerts if the tapping suddenly stops, giving a precise location that the police can then use should the user be abducted.
Emma is passionate about creating greater awareness for WalkSafe, which is funded by the brands’ other ventures, so it can be available free to those that need it.
And, as the app also records knife crime, Emma says that more and more parents need to be aware of the app as young men are in danger from knife crime which rose 25% following the last lockdown easing.
She is available for broadcast and media interviews. Please contact: Emma or Jess at CMS e.chadwick@crownmediasolutions.co.uk j.ward@crownmediasolutions.co.uk
*A recent YouGov poll for UN Women found that seven out of 10 women had experienced some form of sexual harassment in public.
· This number was nearly nine out of 10 for younger women.
· Over half of women had experienced catcalling
· Four out of 10 had been groped or faced unwelcome touching
· A third of women had been followed
· One in five had faced indecent exposure
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