When we talk about protecting female spaces, we have to be honest: you cannot claim to safeguard these spaces while clinging to racist attitudes. Why
When we talk about protecting female spaces, we have to be honest: you cannot claim to safeguard these spaces while clinging to racist attitudes.
Why This Matters in Child Safety
In social work, advocacy, and any role that serves people, the subject of your work is never just a “case” or a “category”—it is people. For the entirety of your career, you will be learning about people, human rights, and history.
When it comes to protecting girls, this means understanding that female children come from every background—rural and urban, Black and white, Indigenous, immigrant, disabled, chronically ill, poor, wealthy, faith-based, secular, multilingual. Their safety needs may be shaped by these intersecting realities.
To protect them well, we must refuse to filter our concern through prejudice. Because if protection is conditional—based on race, ethnicity, or background—it is not protection at all. It’s partiality, and partiality is a crack in the wall meant to keep them safe.
The Danger of Division
Predators, abusers, and hostile systems know how to exploit division. They rely on the “divide and conquer” strategy: if we are distracted by mistrust and bias within our own ranks, we are weaker in defending children from harm.
History proves this. During the Civil Rights Movement, women like Fannie Lou Hamer understood that fighting for safety and dignity required a united front—one that addressed both racial injustice and gender oppression. She and others did not separate these struggles; they recognized that liberation was interconnected.
What Inclusive Protection Looks Like
True protection of female spaces requires:
Awareness of Diverse Needs: Understanding that the dangers faced by a rural girl without reliable internet may differ from those of an urban girl navigating public transit alone—and both deserve equal attention.
Learning and Unlearning: Committing to ongoing education about human rights, history, and cultures—not as a checkbox, but as an active practice.
Shared Ownership of Safety: Recognizing that every girl in that space is our responsibility, not just those who look or live like us. If you can’t do this, why should people trust you with the lives of vulnerable children?
The Bottom Line
We cannot be selective about whose safety matters. Protecting female spaces means building a united, informed, and bias-free front. Girls are watching us—and they will learn from our example whether “female solidarity” is real or just a slogan.
If we are serious about creating Boundaried Spaces where girls can grow, lead, and heal, then we must stand guard for all of them, without exception. Anything less leaves the door open for harm to walk right in.