Celebrate Her

Celebrate Her has called on the hospitality industry to do more to ensure the safety of female staff, following a poll that revealed 91% of women in hospitality feel unsafe travelling home from work.


The Instagram poll, conducted by Celebrate Her founder Anna Sebastian, took in the experiences of nearly 500 women in hospitality, 59% of whom said they had been the victims of attacks or attempted attacks late at night.

The results of the non-profit’s poll suggested only a third of hospitality venues have employee safety policies in place, leading the platform to challenge employers to “acknowledge female safety in the workplace and take measures to ensure women can travel home from work without fear”.

Asked what hospitality businesses could do to act, respondents to the Celebrate Her poll overwhelming pointed to complimentary late-night taxis from work to home.

Sebastian said: “We talk about improving work conditions for our colleagues but we must think about what has real impact. Getting staff to and from work safely makes a tangible difference to people’s lives. We need to look at ways our businesses can make this happen and how it can become standard practice.

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“No one should be left to lock up their premises alone – it creates unnecessary risk to employees - and travelling home at 3am through deserted streets, or on night busses goes beyond what should be expected.

“Businesses could put money into taxi funds. Or perhaps venues could collaborate with brands as part of a Get Home Safely initiative – it could be something that is mutually beneficial. We will be exploring the possibility of teaming up with charities and will be reaching out to the Government to see if anything can be done.”

Celebrate Her’s aim is to elevate and increase the representation of women in hospitality, which, Sebastian said, is only possible if safeguarding measures are a standard. “More safety procedures in place would encourage young women to join the industry, knowing they had the peace of mind of getting home safely at night.”

The poll also found that 72% of women have experienced sexism verbally or in WhatsApp groups, while 73% felt male colleagues didn’t do enough to support them. Ninety Eight percent of those polls thought men play an integral role in improving the safety of women.