HKearl, Author at Stop Street Harassment

Visit the Monument Quilt This Weekend

May 30, 2019 By HKearl

*The square I made for the monument quilt in 2014!*

DC-area folks, the Monument Quilt on the National Mall is here this weekend! It’s been 6+ years in the making, and I made my square as an ally in 2014!! I also wrote an article about it for the Women’s Media Center that year.

“The Monument Quilt, a project of Baltimore based FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture, is a collection of over 3,000 stories by survivors of sexual and intimate partner violence and our allies, written, painted, and stitched onto red fabric. Our stories literally blanket highly public, outdoor places to create and demand space to heal, and resist a singular narrative about sexual violence. The culminating display is coming up May 31 – June 2, 2019, on the National Mall in Washington, DC. This will be the only time that the quilt will be viewed in its entirety.”

Location: National Mall, between 10th and 15th streets; Fri., 1-9 p.m., Sat., 9 a.m.-9 p.m., Sun. 9 a.m.-4 p.m., free.

Read a Washington Post article about it.

New Statewide Study on Sexual Harassment and Assault in California

May 23, 2019 By HKearl

Following up on our latest national research about sexual harassment (including street harassment) and sexual assault, here is a statewide report on California.

The headline figure is that statewide, 86% of women and 53% of men reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment and/or assault in their lifetime.

When we looked specifically at sexual harassment across all public spaces, 77% of women and 35% of men had experienced it. Read the full report here!

CALCASA and UCSD Center on Gender Equity and Health (GEH), took the lead on the statewide study, with support from SSH, RALIANCE, and Promundo.

Take Our Survey on Street Harassment and Age

May 9, 2019 By HKearl

Recently, I’ve read a few street harassment stories in which women recount their first experiences of street harassment at ages as young as 11. Their harassers? Older teenagers or adult men. Based on the hundreds of stories I’ve read and heard over the years, I know this is pretty typical and pretty alarming.

I hope that if more people realized the predatory nature of so much street harassment — adult men preying on teenagers (and younger) — there would be much more outcry and efforts to try to stop it.

To that end, since our latest national studies (2018, 2019) show that a public space is the most frequent site for sexual harassment, I have created an informal survey for YOU to take about your first street harassment experience. How old were you? How old was your harasser? How did it affect you?

I anticipate using the results in blog posts, articles, factsheets and talks going forward. Anyone, anywhere is welcome to complete this short survey. Your answers will be anonymous, but you can choose to leave your email address at the end if you’d like to be contacted with the results.

THANK YOU!

Related, check out this op-ed at Essence penned by Girls For Gender Equity‘s CEO and our ally Joanne N. Smith, “#MeToo Isn’t Just for Adults.”

And if you missed it, be sure to check out (and share) our latest national study from April 30! Full Report | Two-Page Executive Summary | Press Release | Survey Questions | Street Harassment Factsheet

Our Latest Research is Out Now!

April 30, 2019 By HKearl

To close out Sexual Assault Awareness Month, on April 30, 2019, SSH, UCSD Center on Gender Equity and Health (GEH), RALIANCE, CALCASA and Promundo released a new joint national study.

NORC at the University of Chicago conducted the nationally representative survey of 1,182 women and 1,037 men across February – March 2019. They used the using the AmeriSpeak Panel. UCSD’s GEH did the data analysis.

READ: Full Report | Two-Page Executive Summary | Press Release | Survey Questions | Street Harassment Factsheet

Our findings include:

81% of women and 43% of men reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment and/or assault in their lifetime. This graph shows the breakdown of the main categories:

The most frequently was listed location for sexual harassment is a public space, while most sexual assault takes place in private homes or residences.
- 68% of women and 23% of men experienced sexual harassment at a public place like a street, store, park or restaurant. When you include mass transit and nightlife venues, that statistic rises to 71% women and 28% men. In other words, nearly all women who had experienced sexual harassment and/or assault had experienced it in public spaces (as well as perhaps other locations).
Sexual harassment and assault cause people, especially women, to feel anxiety or depression and prompt them to change their route or regular routine.
While experiences of sexual harassment and assault are highly prevalent, accusations of sexual harassment and assault are very rare.
Most people who said they committed sexual harassment also said they had experienced sexual harassment.

While we repeated a few questions from our 2018 survey, we chose to add new questions around false accusations this year in light of the Kavanaugh hearing and Betsy DeVos’s efforts to change Title IX guidelines.

We broke down differences by demographics and included the findings that were statistically significant. For instance:

35% of Black women had experienced sexual harassment in the previous six months.
35% of women with disabilities experienced sexual assault in their lifetime.
95% of lesbian/bisexual women experienced some form of sexual harassment in their lifetime.

Check out the full report!

Thank you to all of our donors who made this report possible!

THANK YOU!

April 15, 2019 By HKearl

Thank you so much to everyone who took part in International Anti-Street Harassment Week by sharing stories, holding events, doing sidewalk chalk messages, posting on social media and more. Groups in at least 32 countries and six continents took part! We are thrilled by the outpouring of support around the world as we all work toward a common goal: safe and welcoming public spaces.

Catch up on what happened:

Read about the new PSAs on the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit System

Please email photos and event updates to StopStreetHarassment@Gmail.com!

Stay tuned for the annual wrap-up report.

Special thanks to our volunteer Meghna Bhat for her help with social media and off-line events in California as well as sharing her story and views on the blog.

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