Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Day 5: International Anti-Street Harassment Week 2017

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Day 5 of the 7th annual International Anti-Street Harassment Week has concluded. Here are some highlights.

  • You can view more photos of the actions in our photo album.
  • Check out the growing list of media coverage!
  • Join the next tweet chat tomorrow, led by Safecity and Global Utmaning, a Swedish Think Tank that initiated the Urban Girls Movement, on “Safe Public Space- Key to Sustainable Development'”, from 9 – 10 p.m. IST, (11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. EDT). Use #UrbanGirlsMovement and #EndSH

Online Campaigns:

Lots of groups all over the world are sharing messages on social media across the week. Here are examples of content shared today from Canada, France, Guatemala, Italy, Kenya, and Spain.

Argentina:

Accion Respeto held an event.

Brazil:

Think Olga did a video/discussion about street harassment and pop culture.

Mexico:

Biblioteca Vasconcelos hosted an event where Lilián de Paz, Tamara de Anda & Ana Gabriela Robles talked about being harassed in Mexico City, an aim to explain this issue to the society.

The Netherlands:

The City of Amsterdam has a webpage for the Week and released a video.

Hollaback! Nederland and the Imagine Project of Emancipator and Volta held an interactive workshop with school-aged boys to encourage critical thinking about street harassment and to take a pledge against street harassment as the first cohort of Young Ambassadors for Safe Streets.

The Philippines:

Katherine Belen of the UN Safe Cities programme in Metro Manila did an interview on Radyo Singko about the #SafeCities campaign

UK:

Hollaback! Derby’s website launched.

USA:

Illinois:

Working Bikes’ WTF! Night (Women Trans Femme) Presented: Breaking the Cycle of Street Harassment, a screening of the Ovarian Psycos documentary and a discussion on harassment in public spaces.

Kentucky:

University of Louisville Women’s Center and Women 4 Women Student Board hosted a speaker to talk about what street harassment is, the prevalence of it, and bystander intervention training. A few students spoke about their experience with street harassment and how race, gender, religion, gender identity, and sexual orientation intersect into their individual experience with street harassment

Minnesota:

Our board member Lindsey went out late last night and chalked in downtown Minneapolis. Morning commuters posted photos on social media, praising her work.

Ohio:

Oberlin College dance students performed a short version of The Window Sex Project, as a part of their “Spring Back” concert. The work was originally devised by Sydnie L. Mosley, her Harlem-based dance company, and Harlem community members, and is being re-staged for the first time on students. The performance is part of a larger event and will run tomorrow night as well.

Pennsylvania:

Susquehanna University’s Women’s Resource Center and Women’s Studies program held their 5th annual chalk walk, despite the rain!

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Street Harassment and Violence are NOT about Clothes

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Guest Post for International Anti-Street Harassment Week

By Mary Mwangi

A few weeks ago, I was conducting interviews on sexual harassment in public spaces and it was frightening to note that almost all of the interviewees believe that it is a woman’s way of dressing that influences street harassment and violence.

Women have been harassed while wearing skirts, hijabs, dresses and trousers, however. This goes to show that street harassment and violence is NOT about dressing. It is important for us to call a spade a spade and not lay blame on dressing, but instead we should strongly condemn those who perpetrate such violence on our streets.

Today, some may think that since we have not heard the news of stripping of women and girls in public spaces that the vice is dead. Sadly, this is not the case as many women continue to face harassment every single day but due to fear of victimization by the perpetrators opt to be silent.

I sturdily feel that the root cause of all form of violence and prejudice between men and women stems from a patriarchal mind-set. Some individuals have expressed concerns that the media and westernization fosters a society that devalues women. But again, don’t you think this is misplaced blame? The media only represents women as the society sees them.

My Dress rally in Kenya in 2014. Photo courtesy of Brian Emmanuel Inganga

Unless we realize that patriarchal attitudes and beliefs cause a lot of harm than good, then a culture of fear will continue. We all need to take up the bull by the horns and work together to fight the vice of street harassment and violence. It is important to note that it isn’t only men who perpetuate patriarchy, women do it too. It is high time that we all worked as a team, as family and as a community since we now know better.

It is high time that we all encouraged sensitization and behavior change initiatives that allow and emphasize discussion on sexual harassment, patriarchy and the need to respect all genders. At Flone Initiative, we believe above being men and women, we are human beings. Yes, we are different, but respecting and celebrating our uniqueness is a goal we are working on. All we need to do is learn to respect each other. It is only then that our women and girls will walk along the streets without fear of being harassed, violated, raped or assaulted but with the assurance of safety, security and freedom.

Join our social media campaign as we advocate for safer streets.
#EndStreetHarassmentWeek | #EndSH | #MyDressMyChoice

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

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Safety First: Street Harassment and Women’s Educational Choices in India

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Guest Post for International Anti-Street Harassment Week

By Girija Borker

Why do women in India choose to attend lower ranked colleges?

Is it because women have lower high school test scores? No.

Is it because of street harassment? YES.

Women studying in Delhi University (DU), one of the top universities in India, choose lower ranked colleges than men with the same high school test scores. This is despite the fact that women score higher on national high school exams than men. And this is true even for the smartest and the most ambitious women. My research aims to understand why women are making these choices and whether it is because women trade-off quality of education for safety from harassment.

DU is composed of 77 colleges and the colleges are spread across Delhi. The colleges vary in quality, with each college having its own campus, staff and classes. Undergraduate admissions in DU are centralized and primarily based on students’ high school test scores. I surveyed over 4,000 students at DU to collect information on students’ daily travel route, travel mode, their high school scores and exposure to street harassment. At DU, most students live with their parents and travel to college every day, predominantly by public transport. In my sample, over 70% of students live at home and of these around 80% use public transport to travel to college every day. Most women I surveyed have experienced some form of street harassment – 63% of women have experienced unwanted staring, 50% have received inappropriate comments, 27% have been touched inappropriately and 25% have been followed.

To determine how the risk of harassment during travel affects college choice, I combine safety data with information on students’ chosen travel route and alternative travel routes available. Safety data comes from SafetiPin, a map-based mobile application that allows users to characterize the safety of an area. Information on harassment by travel mode comes from Safecity, a mobile application that lets women share their stories of harassment in urban public spaces. I used Google Maps to map the route options available to each student for their travel to college every day.

Harassment risk and students’ chosen travel routes to a college in Delhi University.
My analysis indicates that avoidance behavior in response to street harassment can largely explain women’s choices. I found that women are willing to attend a college that is 6 ranks lower for a route that is 1 standard deviation safer. This means that if a woman must choose to travel daily to the number 1 ranked college but face a high probability of harassment, or commute to the 6th ranked college that incurs on average 1 standard deviation less of harassment, she will choose the 6th ranked college. Compared to men, women are willing to give up 4 more ranks for an additional standard deviation of safety. Even among individuals who chose the best college in their set of available choices, women spend Rs. 15,500 ($250) more than men in annual travel costs to take safer, but more expensive travel routes to college. This amount is equivalent to 6% of the average per capita annual income in Delhi.

This is the first study to assess the effects of street harassment on women’s college choice. The study highlights the degree to which the threat of street harassment holds back promising young women, even at a prestigious university in a modern city. The findings speak to the long-term consequences of everyday harassment – perpetuating gender inequality in education. Policy makers must realize that affirmative action for women is not enough unless we transform public spaces into enabling environments that are accessible to all.

Girija is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Economics at Brown University. She works primarily in the areas of gender economics, economics of education, and development economics. Girija grew up in Delhi and did her undergraduate studies from St. Stephen’s College in Delhi University.
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Day 4: International Anti-Street Harassment Week 2017

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Day 4 of the 7th annual International Anti-Street Harassment Week is almost over. Here are some highlights. You can view more photos of the actions in our photo album.

Here is the Storify from the tweet chat today.

Tomorrow, join the Tweet chat led by the George Mason University Women’s and Gender Studies Department, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. EDT, use #EndSH, follow @MasonWGST

Canada:

Women in Cities International released the second episode of their new podcast Small Talks and City Blocks, with WICI director Kathryn Travers and Ayesha Vemuri

Chile:

OCAC Chile engaged in flyering and street action.

Croatia:

Hollaback! Croataia organizes a movie night at Mama Club. They showed “Blurred Lines: The New Battle of the Sexes” (2014), a BBC’s documentary about the increasing rise of misogyny in the media and culture in general.

Ecuador:

Hollaback! Cuenca ‏ attended a meeting at the Bureau of the Eradication of Violence to discuss how to address sexual harassment on public transportation in the city.

France:

Stop Harcèlement de Rue hosted a tweetathon in French — so many people joined to share their stories that the hashtags trended, first in Paris and then in France!

Stop Harcèlement de Rue – Toulouse did street action & chalking.

Stop Harcèlement de Rue – Paris did flyering.

India:

Jagori did a safety audit walk and talked to police about their findings in Delhi.

The Netherlands:

Stop Straatintimidat participated in a march in Amsterdam to protest the abuse of and harassment of LGBQT-identified people.

They also gave Mieke Martelhoff the Women Friendly City Plaque for making her bar a safe place.

They also released this video:

Trinidad & Tobago:

Safecity held a workshop for 40 girls at St George’s school on sexual harassment in public spaces and how to report it using Safecity.

They also held a Safety Walk and discussed street harassment with women and men in Nelson Mandela Park.

Uruguay:

OCAC Uruguay went to the streets and engaged passersby to raise awareness.

USA:

In Philadelphia, Rainbow Alternative posted these messages in various public space locations.

 

 

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Tackling Street Harassment in Bristol

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Cross-posted from Zero Tolerance Bristol for International Anti-Street Harassment Week. By China Fish in Bristol, UK.

Report on Conference: ‘Safer for women’ – Tackling Misogyny and Street Harassment in Nottingham, September 2016.

Background to the conference

My name is China Fish and like many women, I have experienced frequent and unwanted sexual harassment as I walk our city streets. In 2010 I created a satirical performance about this very subject called ‘Lucky Saddle’, two words shouted at me by a man as I cycled in Bedminster when I was around 21 years old. It is an issue close to my heart, as, like most humans, I desire to be able to move freely and safely through the world I inhabit.

The response to the show was powerful; many women were relieved to find allies in their vocal sisters, and a lot of men were astonished to learn that this is something that happens to women. It is for many men, an invisible occurrence, as men who harass tend to refrain from such activity when other men are present. Such invisibility does little to protect women from these daily threats, as the severity of what is happening goes under the radar with almost no avenues for reporting or state protection. Currently, men who harass women are free to do so without any repercussions.

So where do we turn?

In January 2016, I met with Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner Sue Mountstevens to discuss the potential of criminalising street harassment. After this meeting, Charlotte Gage of Bristol Zero Tolerance and I met regularly to discuss potential ways of tackling street harassment from more of a legal standing. In March 2016, Charlotte heard that Nottingham Women’s Centre had created a new hate crime category with the Nottinghamshire police recognising ‘misogyny’ as a hate crime.

The definition of a hate crime is: “a crime motivated by racial, sexual, or other prejudice, typically one involving violence”.

Currently, there exist the following categories for recognised hate crimes in Bristol:

  • Disability
  • Race, skin colour, ethnic origin, nationality
  • Religion or belief
  • Sexual orientation
  • Gender identity.

The definition of ‘gender identity’ as a hate crime on the Avon and Somerset Police website seems to use the terms ‘transgender’ and ‘gender’ interchangeably. Grouping these two categories causes some confusion and does not serve to clearly identify the need for a category for women to report street harassment as a gender-based hate crime. According to Nottingham Women’s Centre, transgender hate crime is recognised in law and gender-based hate isn’t. For these reasons, Nottingham decided to create a new category for ‘misogyny’ to clearly recognise and define the way that women’s experiences differ to men’s. As an, ‘other’ category already existed in the list of hate crimes which enables men to report instances of misandry, it was possible for them to create ‘misogyny’ as a new category.

Nottinghamshire Police defines misogyny hate crime as: “incidents against women that are motivated by an attitude of a man towards a woman and includes behaviour targetted towards a woman by men simply because they are a woman.” (Conference brochure)

To test the impact of this initiative, a pilot programme was launched in April 2016. The Nottinghamshire Police received thorough training – funded by the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) – from hollaback, a grassroots organisation that combats street harassment, in partnership with Nottingham Women’s Centre.  Nottinghamshire Police hope that through recording incidents in this way they will be able to:

  • “Raise awareness of the seriousness of these incidents and encourage women to report”
  • Gather better intelligence to disrupt activities/perpetrators
  • Better manage risk and support women affected.

Since the pilot, women who live in Nottingham have said they feel safer walking the streets and have increased confidence in the police force. They now know they will be taken seriously and that steps are in place to prevent and protect them from such violence. Nottingham Women’s Centre have said that there have been 70 reports made under the new ‘misogyny’ category between April 2016 and January 2017. The long-term aim of Nottinghamshire Police is to “nudge people towards a culture shift and to reframe these behaviours as socially unacceptable.”

Highlights and outcomes of the conference

The ‘Safer for women’ – Tackling misogyny and street harassment conference was organised by Nottingham Women’s Centre and Nottinghamshire Police. The event was chaired by Chief Constable Sue Fish who has been pioneering this work alongside Melanie Jeffs from Nottingham Women’s Centre, both warm and admirable women with great humour, wit and impact. Police, academics, women’s groups and grassroots organisations attended to learn about the work, its benefits, and how it may be implemented in other areas throughout the UK.

Amongst the panel were key names in this field, including Laura Bates from The Everyday Sexism Project; Sam Smethers from the Fawcett Society; Zahra Butt, community activist; Dr Irene Zempi, Director of the Nottingham Centre for Bias, Prejudice and Hate Crime; and Mark Simmonds from Nottingham Trent University.

It was a powerful event with evidence and testimonies from a cross section of women living in Nottingham. Amongst these was an account from a Year 8 student who has encountered regular street harassment from older men, including being followed by men in cars on several occasions. To hear such experiences from women themselves was a compelling reminder of the reason this work is being done, and was instrumental in helping other constabularies throughout the UK to see the urgent need for action.

Amongst the inspirational sessions I attended was a Q&A for voluntary sector staff and activists. Here I forged more connections with Nottingham Women’s Centre and gained a deeper understanding of how we might implement this in Bristol.

Since the event, a small group of us have been meeting to navigate potential ways of implementing something similar here. We will be collating a body of evidence, both written and spoken testimonies, from the women of Bristol to present to Avon and Somerset Police. (Please find information below of how to get involved). We are in communication with our PCC, Sue Mountstevens, and will continue, with support from Nottingham, to pursue this change locally.

Three police forces in the UK have agreed to begin recording misogyny as a hate crime and a number of other forces are looking into it. We are hoping that Bristol will work with us to forge the way to achieving a safer community and have a significant impact on the lives of women and girls in Bristol.  Nottinghamshire Police are also trying to roll this initiative out nationally, a steady process that perhaps one day will manifest.

Sam Smethers from the Fawcett Society said at the conference; “if we can tackle the small things, maybe it will tackle the more severe”.  We must begin to recognise the links between a wolf whistle, a shouted verbal assault, a grope, a threat of rape, physical attacks, rape and murder. Smethers added, “every time a woman is wolf whistled at, it is a reminder of her position in society.”

Let us shift this now!

Take action in Bristol!

Tell us your stories:

You can support the local campaign by helping us to gather evidence of street harassment around Bristol. Tell us about your experiences or those of others to develop a picture of the problem.

See www.facebook.com/BristolStreetHarassmentProject for more information.

Map the issue:

Take part in our community safety audit of Bristol to record any incidents and create a picture of street harassment across the city. Alternatively use our online survey to add information https://goo.gl/forms/bj05R5IGdoizYbmw2

Take part in Anti-Street Harassment Week 2nd-8th April 2017:

Take part in our Call Out Card day of action on Thursday 6th April – distribute and use the cards to start a conversation and let us know what happened.

To order the cards e-mail maisy@bristolwomensvoice.org.uk

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