Gracias, شكرا, धन्यवाद, Danke, хвала, Merci, THANK YOU!
Thank you for rising to the occasion and taking a stand against sexual harassment in public spaces last week! Groups in 40 countries took actions online and offline, from rallies and marches to workshops with youth, from Tweet chats and Google hangouts to sharing images on social media. We made a big splash both online and offline, reaching millions of people. Congratulations on all you have helped achieve!
– Holly, founder of the week
I just wanted to thank you so much for participating in #EndSHWeek this year. It was such a thrill to see what everyone was planning – your actions were so creative and inspiring! As you may have noticed, this event is growing every year – if you have any feedback on how we can improve for next year, I would love to hear it! Thanks for your activism.
– Britnae, online manager for the week
VIEW PHOTOS:
View nearly 600 photos of actions | View a smaller album with one image per country.
REPORT BACK:
Please let us know what YOU did so we can include it in our wrap-up report.
HIGHLIGHTS:
* Anti-harassment transit campaigns launched in London, Los Angeles, and Vancouver and a new study about harassment on the transit system in France found that 100% of women have been harassed
* Fiona Patten, a member of Parliament in Victoria, Australia, raised the issue of street harassment in Parliament
* Women in Afghanistan and Iran shared their street harassment stories on the SSH Blog
* Six main hashtags were used across the week on Twitter: #Endsh #Endshweek #plutotsympa #everydaysexism #AcosoEsViolencia #NoAcosoCallejero
* The UK-based international group Everyday Sexism. Founder Laura Bates said that on April 16 alone, 45,000 people tweeted about sexism, including street harassment, using the hashtag #everydaysexism.
* In France, after a business woman tweeted that getting whistled at is nice, thousands of people shared their street harassment stories using the hashtag #plutotsympa. The hashtag trended for part of the day on April 16
* Numerous tweet chats and google hangouts took place. Read the recaps or watch the videos:
Reporting street harassment | Practical solutions to street harassment | Global Tweetathon | Street harassment across the world
The NOW Young Feminists & Allies virtual chapter hosted a google hangout about street harassment and multiculturalism.
Me=You: Sexual Harassment Awareness held a Google hangout Q&A with SSH board member Erin McKelle
* In Latin America, NGOs in Chile, Argentina, Brasil, Colombia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Peru, Ecuador and Uruguay took photos with anti-harassment, pro-respect messages and posted them on social media.
* For a taste of the range of actions, here are four examples of activism that took place in Nepal, the Netherlands, India and Italy
* New street signs about street harassment went up in New York City, Philadelphia and Toronto. The USA-based sign sparked dozens of news articles, including this news story featuring SSH board member Maliyka Muhamad and my article for Feministing.com.
* Many teenagers spoke out against street harassment. Not only did they participate in offline actions like workshops and rallies in countries like Cameroon, Egypt, India, and Nepal, but they also wrote about their experiences. For example, “Don’t ignore the street harassment stories of young girls” by a 17-year-old in California, Chloe Parker and teenagers in Fort Walton Beach made a video about street harassment.
* SSH is based in the Washington, DC-area and we organized or were part of five offline events and actions across the week
* There were at least 80 media hits in at least 10 countries.
The week may be over, but our work is far from done. Wherever we are, we must continue to challenge the status quo, the discrimination against all women, members of the LGBT community, persons of color, persons with disabilities, and others who are marginalized. We must strive to make public places safer for all.
With gratitude for the risks you take to speak out, for the determination you have to make change,
Holly
