Boom towns have never been friendly places for women. After all, they are inhabited primarily by young men who go there in droves looking for jobs. The Bakken oil field in eastern Montana and western North Dakota is no exception. Crime is up, and the perception is that if you’re a woman, it’s dangerous. From our Inside Energy team, Emily Guerin reports that that perception might be more real than the danger itself….
GUERIN: When I moved to North Dakota in June, people worried about me. Friends told me I should never go reporting alone. Or that I should get pepper spray, or a handgun. So when I heard about these home sales parties for self defense products, I knew I wanted to go.
SOUND OF PARTY
GUERIN: Five women are sitting on the living room floor of a house in Dickinson. It kinda feels like a slumber party -- no shoes, no husbands and no kids -- except, these women are passing a stun gun back and forth.
ERICA LEACH: The metal prongs are where the electricity comes out. So don’t touch the metal prongs, but definitely try it and pass it around.
SOUND OF ZAPPING
WOMEN GIGGLING, SAYING OH MY GOSH! (FADE AND HOLD UNDER)
GUERIN: Erica Leach is a saleswoman for Damsel in Defense, a company based in Idaho that sells self defense products. Cute self defense products. There’s pink pepper spray and purple stun guns with rhinestone wrist straps. Business is booming -- in 2011, there were no sales reps in North Dakota. Now, there are about thirty.
LEACH: I think that feeling unsafe is definitely good for business, but we don’t use scare tactics to sell our products.
GUERIN: She doesn't need to. Her customers do it on their own.
MONTAGE OF SCARY STORIES: “This person followed me out of the store…”
“She went out running on the country roads and somebody murdered her for fun…”
(CROSSFADE WITH ABC NEWS TAPE:)
TAPE: ….AUTHORITIES SAY 43 YEAR OLD MATH TEACHER SHERRY ARNOLD WAS GRABBED OFF THE STREET IN SIDNEY, MONTANA WHILE WAS JOGGING AT THE EDGE OF TOWN. (duck under)
GUERIN: That's an ABC news report from 2012. (Fade out news clip) You can't talk about the feeling that the Bakken is unsafe for women without talking about Sherry Arnold. Her death changed the way people here view outsiders, especially young men-- the very people this region needs to fill thousands of new jobs.
BAKKE STENEHJEM: Because people really woke up to the fact that even if you’re in a small town, you’re not necessarily safe.
GUERIN: Beth Bakke Stenehjem grew up in western North Dakota and now teaches self defense classes in Bismarck. SNEAK IN SOUND HERE
SOUND OF SCREAMING AND SOUND OF HITTING: NO! STOP! ELBOW! ELBOW! KNEE! KICK! (Duck under)
GUERIN: That’s Bakke Stenehjem at a recent demo for female employees at a company in downtown Bismarck. Stephanie Johnson took the class already, and told the crowd it made her feel way more confident.
STEPHANIE JOHNSON: It’s amazing what your body does after going through that class. And the adrenaline rush and you already think about, if he does this, I’m going to do that...
GUERIN: But here’s the thing -- state data shows that violent crime is actually higher in other parts of North Dakota. You are more likely to be raped outside the oil patch than inside it. And Bakke Stenehjem knows this--she is married to the Attorney General after all. Still, she and her husband Wayne Stenehjem encourage women to learn how to protect themselves.
WAYNE STENEHJEM: These assaults do happen, they’re rare, but they do happen. And people do worry about them. And if you’re worried about them programs like that can be very helpful.
GUERIN: But are they really necessary? Women in the oil patch are receiving mixed messages --- we’re told we need to defend ourselves, and we’re told there is no reason to be concerned. Remember all the scary stories those women at the Damsel in Defense party told? Well, they also said stuff like this:
LEACH: I don’t wake up terrified because I’m in North Dakota. Absolutely not.
GUERIN: That's Erica Leach again the same woman selling pepper spray and stun guns. …After the party, I was conflicted. But then -- I got it. Later that same night, I was walking to my car in the Walmart parking lot … These 3 guys were milling around a sports car parked next to mine, staring at me. The threat might not have been real but I felt it anyway. I realized how all these men could make women, feel so... uncomfortable. ... This is the new North Dakota. And I might feel better navigating it with pink pepper spray dangling from my wrist.
For Inside Energy, I’m Emily Guerin.
ANCHOR TAG: Inside Energy is a public media collaboration focusing on America’s energy issues.
