Picture this: you’re walking home from work at night and you get that feeling. It starts with the quickening of your heartbeat, the instinctual sense that something isn’t quite right. You start to pick up the pace and scan your surroundings for someone who could help you if needed, who could hear you if you have to call out.

But then you take out your phone and open The Sorority, an app that calls itself the first global support network uniting us to act together in the face of all forms of violence. On it is a community of more than 80,000 women across the world ready to provide mutual aid. “Are you in danger?” the app’s interface asks. “Do you feel unsafe? Do you need immediate help? Have you witnessed an assault?”

“Seventy-eight users are within 10km of you and ready to take action,” it reassures you. You can call them, message them or even turn up to their registered ‘safe space’. 

Founded in 2020 by Priscillia Routier, The Sorority offers a community solution to a widespread problem. For most women, feeling unsafe is all too common an experience, and according to data from the End Violence Against Women Coalition, 64% of women of all ages have experienced unwanted sexual harassment in public places. Its goal is simple: allow every woman to feel safe in public spaces. 

“Most women launching the app are in situations where they feel unsafe or are worried they’re being followed,” Routier tells Stylist. Unlike with the police, she says that The Sorority users can report simply feeling unsafe – no crime or contact has to be made. “We don’t want people to feel like they have to wait for something bad to happen,” she adds. “If you feel like something isn’t right, you can launch an alert and within just a few minutes users around you can see where you are, contact you and offer their support.”

First launched in France but now rolled out worldwide, as of last year the app had more than 250,000 downloads, with 80,000 verified users and 6,500 safe locations, from pharmacies to women’s shelters, offered.

The app’s website is testament to its real-world impact. On it, hundreds of testimonies from users located in Brazil, Algeria, Brussels and Geneva herald it as a caring community that demonstrates the value of mutual aid. “I came home late at night and I was not reassured at all. Without even having to activate the alert, I opened the map and saw all the people near me. I started talking to a few of them while we got home. One even called me by the time I got home,” shares one 17-year-old user.

And according to The Sorority’s own data, 93.9% of users feel that it allows them to feel safer on the street, with 84.3% agreeing the same for public transport.

It’s a reassurance that feels sorely needed. Following the murder of Sarah Everard by police officer Wayne Couzens in 2021, many asked whether the institutions meant to protect us could ever really be counted on.

Last March, more than 1,500 British police officers were accused of violent offences against women and girls between October 2021 and April 2022. Three-quarters of rape survivors say the police response damaged their mental health – that reporting rape to the police often causes significant harm over and above the sexual assault itself. Over half of surveyed domestic abuse victims said they had to report domestic abuse twice to the police before they felt appropriate action was taken.

But for Routier, creating The Sorority wasn’t necessarily about helping women take their safety into their own hands, but working alongside authorities to combat male violence against women and girls. “We all have to put our forces together,” she says.

While bystander intervention is the key tenet of the app, Routier stresses that users should never put themselves at risk by approaching a potentially dangerous situation; instead, when they receive an alert from a woman nearby, the first thing they should do is use the app’s call or chat functions to see what she needs.

“Ask what is happening and what kind of support she needs,” Routier continues. “It might just be that she needs a voice at the end of the phone or it could be someone to call the authorities, but you should never act without her permission, even if you’re trying to help.”

Like Tinder, Routier says that the app is designed to be deleted and she hopes one day it is rendered useless.

“For a flourishing society, human mutual assistance is the key,” she adds. “It’s about helping others when they’re in danger so that they know that they have people around them that believe and support them.”

Images: Getty; The Sorority