Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

“Other people must think I’m a slut”

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I was waiting to cross the road. Builders who were on a scaffold repeatedly whistled at me (like did not take a break, just continuous wolf whistling). I was stuck there and couldn’t walk away because I couldn’t cross the road. I felt so scared and ashamed. It made me feel like I was dressed inappropriately and that other people must think I’m a slut.

– Anonymous

This post is part of a back-to-school series to highlight the young age that street harassment begins. The stories in this series were shared as part of our recent survey on street harassment and age and they entail people’s first experience of street harassment. The full list of stories is available here.

As you read the stories, note that among respondents, 70% said they were 13 years old or younger at the time of their first experience. 24% said they were 14 to 16 years old. The remaining 6% were older than 16.

Need support?
Call the toll-free National Street Harassment hotline: 855-897-5910

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“Please pull that dress down!”

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I was walking down the street with my mom, and I was wearing a pretty dress because I was going to the theater. A man drove by in a car and hollered, “Please pull that dress down!”

I was 15 at the time.

– Anonymous

This post is part of a back-to-school series to highlight the young age that street harassment begins. The stories in this series were shared as part of our recent survey on street harassment and age and they entail people’s first experience of street harassment. The full list of stories is available here.

As you read the stories, note that among respondents, 70% said they were 13 years old or younger at the time of their first experience. 24% said they were 14 to 16 years old. The remaining 6% were older than 16.

Need support?
Call the toll-free National Street Harassment hotline: 855-897-5910

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“The harassment by men hasn’t stopped since”

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I was in a store, looking at a shelf when a man in his 40’s pressed himself up against my back and whispered in my ear that I was beautiful. He then rubbed past me as he went back to his wife who was his age. The same thing happened in the same place months after, despite me taking all those months in between to gain the confidence just to go back there at age 12. The harassment by men hasn’t stopped since.

– Anonymous

This post is part of a back-to-school series to highlight the young age that street harassment begins. The stories in this series were shared as part of our recent survey on street harassment and age and they entail people’s first experience of street harassment. The full list of stories is available here.

As you read the stories, note that among respondents, 70% said they were 13 years old or younger at the time of their first experience. 24% said they were 14 to 16 years old. The remaining 6% were older than 16.

Need support?
Call the toll-free National Street Harassment hotline: 855-897-5910

 

 

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Kenya: Toolkit For Mini-Bus Drivers

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Guest Post for International Anti-Street Harassment Week

By Mary Mwangi

Over the years, there have been rampant cases of violence against women and girls (VAWG) on public transport in Africa and other developing regions. On November 17th2014, Kenya got the world’s attention with the #MyDressMyChoice campaign when thousands of people took to the streets to protest sexual violence against women in the public transport industry after a spate of stripping incidences were filmed and posted online. This protest sparked a movement to challenge gender norms and systems that allow this kind of violence to occur and fundamentally limit women’s freedom of movement and access to public space.

The public minibus transport service providers of Kenya – the matatu industry – provide an affordable transportation option to many people who would otherwise remain immobile. The matatu industry has developed its own unique culture and employs hundreds of thousands of people. This toolkit seeks to maintain what works well about this industry, while providing practical tools and supports that will make it more accessible and safer for women.

The Gender Sensitive Mini-Bus Services and Transport Infrastructure for African Cities Toolkit is designed to provide minimum standard guidelines and practical tools to create safer and more accessible public transportation systems for women in African cities. Specifically, the toolkit gives vital knowledge for improving existing management policies and practices.

This toolkit is a synthesis of primary and secondary information taken from two case studies from Nairobi, Kenya, and a literature review to identify best practices on gender and urban transport applied in cities around the world, with a particular focus on developing cities. Kenyan minibus services (locally referred to as matatus) are organized into informal saving and credit cooperatives organizations, or SACCOs. These public minibus transport services are frequently used by middle and lower-income earners, the majority of who are women, and are notorious for frequent harassment, recklessness and violence.

These case studies, conducted by Flone Initiative in collaboration with UN-Habitat and Prof. Inés Sánchez Madariaga, an expert in Gender and Urban Planning, affiliated with the University of Madrid and a member of UN-Habitat’s Advisory Group on Gender Issues (AGGI), sought to gather information from both commuters and transport industry operators (drivers, conductors and managers) through the execution of a Mobility of Care Study and a Gender Equity Assessment with three selected public minibus transport service providers. These studies were conducted in August – October 2018. Findings from both studies, coupled with best practices, have informed the development of this toolkit.

The toolkit provides public minibus transport providers with:

  • Customer feedback tools and sample customer service charter. The report recommends that these tools should provide commuters with clear reporting mechanisms.
  • How to achieve environmental sustainability
  • Recommendations on how to develop and implement zero-tolerance sexual harassment policies that address concerns for both workers and commuters.
  • Recommendations of minibus modifications that support the specific needs of commuters traveling with children, carrying large packages and living with both visible and invisible disabilities.
  • How to integrate organizational family-friendly human resource policies such as maternity and paternity leave.

Additionally, the toolkit recommends ways in which policy makers can use these recommendations to develop gender-sensitive legislation which can create safer, more accessible public transportation systems for all road users. It also provides ideas for how civil society actors can support these initiatives.

This is the first version of a toolkit which will guide a multi-year project to be executed by Flone Initiative. The project will seek to support transport organizations in adopting the recommendations made herein. This toolkit will be adapted and amended based on user feedback, impact and learnings.

You can find the toolkit here.

This toolkit was prepared to provide minibus transport organizations, policy makers and civil society actors with practical and concrete tools to create safer public transport systems for African women and other vulnerable commuters.

Mary Mwangi is the program manager at Flone Initiative in Kenya.

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“It was unwelcome behavior based on my race”

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I work at the university and free street parking is scarce, so I left early to find a parking spot close to my building. I found my preferred spot was taken by a white truck, a trailer and three men in yellow construction vests. I found a spot a few yards down which meant I had to walk past them.

As I approached I heard one of them grunt a greeting and instinctively turned to see who had spoken. Immediately after seeing my face the 1st man asked his coworker if I was a Native girl. The second man said no. She must be African American, they mulled it over before the 2nd man settled on Cuban. They said this all while I was feet away, obviously in earshot.

At first I wanted to brush it off, but by the time I was inside I was fuming. I was uncomfortable, confused, and angry. What gave them the right to talk about me like that?

All the insecurities and fears of being a women of color in public washed over me. I struggled with what to do next. It seemed like too small an incident to report or even talk about but I couldn’t let the experience go.

I decided to call my husband who went into action. He went and collected the license plate number and the company name, and spoke with the men. Turns out they are not allowed to speak with the public. He even took it a step further and called the employer. When I learned they would be around the university on a project for a while, I filed a police report.

I still don’t know if I responded correctly. I am not one to make waves, even when it means standing up for myself. I struggled to know if my experience met the definition of harassment. I was not hurt or threatened, just ignorant men talking about my race as if I were an object.

It took time to realize that yes, it was harassment. It was unwelcome behavior based on my race. I lost 2 hours of work productivity and the feeling of security coming to and from work and that is unacceptable.

I started thinking of everyone who has experienced harassment and those who will experience it, including my daughters. Suddenly it hurt too much to stay silent.

I know others may see what happened to me as no big deal, but I decided to send the message that harassment of any degree is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.

Optional: Do you have any suggestions for dealing with harassers and/or ending street harassment in general?

To end harassment we need to talk about it, write it down, share your story, and educate others. We need to support those who experience harassment by creating loving and supportive spaces where we can share and discuss our experiences. By opening up we will learn what harassment looks like in all its ugly forms. If we all know what constitutes harassment we can gain courage to step in and stop those behaviors.

– AJ

Location: Flagstaff, AZ

Need support? Call the toll-free National Street Harassment hotline: 855-897-5910

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for ideas.

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