Important Anti-Street Harassment Week Update – 2020 is FINAL Year
April marked the 9th year of International Anti-Street Harassment Week! Read the new wrap-up report and view the photos of actions that were taken in over 30 countries!
In 2011, when I decided we needed a dedicated time each year for groups and people across the world to speak out together against street harassment, I didn’t envision how many groups/people that would entail across the next nine years, or that entities like the UN, Oxfam and PLAN International and government agencies would join in. It’s breathtaking.
I also didn’t know how many hundreds of hours I’d spend to run the Week. This is the 9th year that I managed the Week unpaid, while simultaneously working a day job. This year, I also needed to parent a one-year-old with health issues who was about to have his 4th and 5th surgeries, so I couldn’t put as much time into it as I had in prior years (I am typing this at 6 a.m. on a Sunday while he sleeps). Last year, I was two weeks away from giving birth and very sick while overseeing it and so I also did less than in previous years. The year before that, I unexpectedly was in the midst of an IVF process and had an egg extraction on the last day of the Week — I was RT-ing and sharing people’s actions from the hospital room before I went under anesthesia.
I care about this issue so much that I’ve continued to organize and speak out even when I’ve had to juggle these huge, personal-life issues (and a day job).
Even before the personal challenges of recent years, each year I always feel so exhausted from preparing for and overseeing the Week that I think, “This is the last year I’m doing it.”
But, then, each year, I feel exhilarated by the amazing actions that have taken place and the solidarity and awareness-raising it inspires. I am in awe by the creativity of groups who are involved and the dedication to the issue exhibited by people worldwide. The positives of the Week have always outweighed the toll it takes on me and my life, so each year, I decide, “Okay, I can oversee it one more time.”
And I do.
This year, I’ve made a new decision. It truly is untenable for me to keep overseeing the Week indefinitely, especially unpaid, so the action in 2020 — which will be the 10th consecutive year of global action — will be the last. Ending International Anti-Street Harassment Week at a decade feels right, and I am so proud of all that we as a community have achieved across that time.
I hope you will mark your calendars for the final year of action – let’s close out the decade of global activism with a splash! Join us from April 19-25, 2020.
Visit the Monument Quilt This Weekend
![](https://stopstreetharassment.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/monument-quilt-1024x768.jpg)
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.
Read a Washington Post article about it.
New Statewide Study on Sexual Harassment and Assault in California
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
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