New LogicMark Survey Reveals Safety Concerns of Gen Z Women & Workarounds They've Adapted

LOUISVILLE, Ky., Aug. 18, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A new national survey commissioned by LogicMark, Inc. (OTC: LGMK), provider of personal safety and connected care technology, found that safety is a constant, in-the-background calculation, especially for women. Eighty-nine percent (89%) of Gen Z women carry some form of active safety concern in daily life, and only 11% report none at all.

The findings, drawn from a survey of 1,500 women ages 18 to 25, describe a generation that has quietly built its own safety infrastructure because no institution provided one. The data spans hidden workarounds, drink-tampering fear, wardrobe choices shaped by risk, a persistent trust gap with institutions, and a lack of willingness to report.

“Safety for Gen Z women is not a moment of alarm, but rather an operating condition of daily life,” said Chia-Lin Simmons, CEO of LogicMark. “They already carry the tools, share the locations, adjust the outfits, and stay alert. Our job when creating tech solutions for these issues is to remove some of that weight, not add another layer of it.”

An Entire Safety System, Built Without Any Help
Eighty-five percent (85%) of Gen Z women have used hidden workarounds, a set of subtle tactics passed between friends and deployed without a second thought, to avoid or escape an unsafe situation. Thirty-eight percent (38%) have shared a live location with a friend before a night out. That same amount have faked a phone call. Thirty-two percent (32%) have asked a friend to call with a fake emergency.

Gen Z women built this system on their own, refined it over years, and now treat it as a baseline cost of moving through public life. The labor is real, including pre-planning, situational awareness, and a network of friends willing to answer at any hour.

Getting Dressed Is a Safety Calculation
Sixty-two percent (62%) of Gen Z women have changed what they wear because of safety concerns, 33% regularly and 29% on occasion. Another 11% have thought about changing an outfit for safety but didn’t. Only 23% say clothing choices are never influenced by risk.

This “wardrobe tax” rarely shows up in conversations about safety spending, but it is a daily, invisible one. Comfort, warmth, and personal expression are traded against a perceived reduction in risk, and the exchange impacts the person doing the calculating rather than anyone who could address the underlying threat.

The Drugging-Fear Gap
Sixty-two percent (62%) of Gen Z women carry active concern about drink safety at social events, combining the 16% who have been fairly certain a drink was tampered with, the 20% who suspected tampering without certainty, and the 26% who worry about it without any specific incident. Forty-five percent (45%) have personally experienced a suspected drugging or know someone who has.

The precautions that follow are now routine rather than exceptional, with 42% never accepting a drink they did not pour or watch being poured, 37% pouring their own drinks whenever possible, and 32% will only drink from sealed bottles or cans. This is a defining feature of how a generation of women navigates a night out.

“When close to half of a generation has direct or indirect experience with drink tampering, it can no longer be dismissed as an isolated incident,” Simmons said. “That is a problematic pattern, and the burden of managing it has landed entirely on the people most at risk.”

Trust in the Institution Doesn’t Translate to Trust in the Process
Among college-educated women, only 36% say their school takes reports of sexual assault or harassment “very seriously.” Thirty-three percent say “somewhat seriously,” and 18% say “not very” or “not at all” seriously. Yet 44% chose not to report a safety incident during college; only 51% say they would report an incident immediately if it happened today.

The most common reason for staying silent, cited by 23% of college-educated respondents, is fear of being judged, including not being believed or damaging a relationship. Only 18% of college-educated women think fraternity houses or party hosts do enough to keep attendees safe; 13% say those hosts actively create unsafe situations. Trust in an institution and trust in the outcome of reporting to that institution are measuring two different things, and the survey shows they do not move together.

The Mandate
The findings describe a generation managing a level of vigilance that most institutions and policies were not designed around. The workarounds, wardrobe choices, drink precautions, and the silence around reporting are not isolated behaviors. They are adaptations to a set of conditions that the data suggests are widely shared but often not discussed.

“This research is not a portrait of fear,” Simmons said. “It is a portrait of adaptation, of the invisible labor of moving through the world while constantly calculating risk. Whether the world is more dangerous than it was for previous generations is a separate question. What matters for anyone building solutions for this population is that half of them believe it is, and they are making everyday decisions on that belief.”

Additional data, methodology detail, and survey visuals are available at https://www.logicmark.com/logicmark-young-womens-survey/.

Methodology
The survey was commissioned by LogicMark and conducted by Talker Research among 1,500 U.S. women ages 18 to 25 (Generation Z, born 1997–2008), fielded July 22–30, 2026. The sample included 621 college-educated respondents and 879 not college-educated respondents, with a regional split of Northeast 18%, Southeast 33%, Southwest 20%, Midwest 18%, and West 11%. The survey was conducted online using a random double opt-in methodology.

About LogicMark, Inc.
LogicMark, Inc. (OTC: LGMK) is on a mission to enable people of all ages to lead lives with dignity, independence, and the joy of possibility. LogicMark provides PERS, health communications devices, personal safety apps, services, and technologies to create a Connected Care Platform. LogicMark is dedicated to building a “Care Village” with proprietary technology, creating innovative solutions for the care economy. The Company’s technologies are sold through the United States Veterans Health Administration, dealers, distributors, and directly to consumers. To learn more, visit www.logicmark.com.

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