Home Secretary Priti Patel says she understands public anger over Sarah Everard's death, but warned against protests while Covid restrictions are in place.
It comes as hundreds of people gathered in London's Parliament Square on Monday to pay tribute to Ms Everard.
Ms Patel told MPs her heartache and that of others could be summed up as "she was just walking home".
She stressed that she was committed to listening to women and girls.
The home secretary also confirmed that she has started a review into policing of Saturday's vigil for Ms Everard.
Hundreds of people had gathered on London's Clapham Common to lay flowers and pay their respects to the 33-year-old marketing executive, who went missing while walking home from a friend's house on 3 March.
Her body was later found in woodland in Kent and Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens, 48, has been charged with Ms Everard's kidnap and murder.
Police officers handcuffed and removed a number of women from Saturday's Clapham gathering and arrested four people for public order and Covid offences.
The Met has faced widespread criticism for its handling of that event - but the force's commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick, has rejected a call to step down.
Reclaim these Streets, the group that initially organised the vigil, said on Monday that it had lost confidence in Dame Cressida after talks with her on Monday, claiming that she left after 15 minutes.
Anna Birley of Reclaim these Streets told BBC News: "To be honest Cressida Dick has lost our confidence and the confidence of women in the capital. We didn't want to call on her to resign until we'd at least had a meeting and given her a chance to engage.
"We don't have great confidence in the Met Police's willingness to work with us unless forced to."
Ahead of the event, Reclaim These Streets called off the vigil, saying police had failed to "constructively engage" on how it could be held in a Covid-secure way.
When people gathered anyway, the group pointed out that they did so without the marshalling and other safety measures that had been originally proposed.
On Sunday, there were protests outside the Met Police's headquarters at New Scotland Yard, Downing Street and in Parliament Square.
Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday, Ms Patel said she had made her views about the vigil "very clear" to Dame Cressida before the event.
The home secretary said she had been in touch with the Met Commissioner "on Friday and throughout the weekend", adding that they had had "extensive discussions in terms of planning [and] preparation" for the vigil.
In a statement to MPs, Ms Patel said Ms Everard's death had "rightly ignited anger at the danger posed to women by predatory men, and anger I feel as strongly as anyone".
She insisted she was committed to listening to women and girls, but urged people not to "participate in large gatherings or protests".
Ms Patel added that while the right to protest was a "cornerstone of our democracy, the government's duty remains to prevent more lives being lost during the pandemic".
The home secretary said she recognised why Ms Everard's death had upset so many people, insisting that women and girls "must feel safe" walking the streets.
"Too many of us have walked home from school or work alone only to hear footsteps uncomfortably close behind us. Too many of us have pretended to be on the phone to a friend to scare someone off.
"Too many of us have clutched our keys in our fist in case we need to defend ourselves and that is not OK.
"Women and girls must feel safe whilst walking our streets, that is why we have continued to take action."
She stressed that the government has put in place measures to ensure women and girls feel safe, including tackling domestic abuse, female genital mutilation and upskirting.
The Domestic Abuse bill is on track to receive royal assent by the end of April, she said, adding that it would "transform our collective response to this abhorrent crime".
Ms Patel also revealed that since the government's survey into Violence Against Women and Girls had been reopened on Friday, there had been 78,000 new responses - "considerably more" than the 18,000 responses gathered across the 10 weeks the survey had originally been open for.
In response, Labour's shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said "things clearly went very wrong" at Saturday's vigil.
He said: "Let me be clear, it is not women who should change their behaviour, it is men and wider society that needs to change.
"And at times like this it is vital people are able to have their voices heard, of course in a way that is lawful and Covid-secure. Yet this weekend in Clapham things clearly went very wrong and I share the anger about the policing and the scenes we saw."
He also accused the government of "a chronic failure" to address violence against women and girls, adding that "meetings and reopening surveys are not enough".
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiJmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jby51ay9uZXdzL3VrLTU2NDA2OTY10gEqaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmJjLmNvLnVrL25ld3MvYW1wL3VrLTU2NDA2OTY1?oc=5
2021-03-15 18:16:21Z
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