Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

2019 SSH Highlights

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Thank you for being part of our community to stop street harassment this year!

Here are six of the highlights and efforts YOU made possible!

  1. Produced another national study on sexual harassment in the US, in collaboration with UCSD Center on Gender Equity and Health (GEH), RALIANCE, CALCASA and Promundo. As in 2018, 81% of women and 43% of men had experienced sexual harassment at some point in their life.As part of this survey, we were able to pull out facts on street harassment, which showed over 70% of women have experienced it, the most of any type of sexual harassment. Thank you everyone who donated to make the survey possible!
  2. Contributed to a state-wide survey on sexual harassment in California, led by UCSD GEH and CALCASA. The findings helped influence the California state budget and its allotment of funds toward sexual harassment and violence prevention! Again, thank you to everyone who donated to make this survey possible.
  3. Oversaw our 9th annual International Anti-Street Harassment Week with participating groups in over 30 countries, ranging from Australia to Uganda. Thank you to everyone who took action! Read the new wrap-up report and view the photos of actions.
  4. Helped launch a 4th wave of PSAs on the Washington, DC transit system, one focused on what witnesses to harassment can do if they see it occur. Along with our collaborators at WMATA and Collective Action for Safe Spaces, we did flyering and outreach to alert riders to the new campaign. Thanks to everyone who volunteered.
  5. Conducted the first ever survey on street harassment and age which revealed the shocking difference between how old most women were when they first faced street harassment (middle school) compared with their male harassers (usually at least in their 20s or 30s, if not older). It is important for this disturbing and very wrong dynamic to be part of conversations about ending street harassment. Read my Ms. Magazine article about the findings and why they matter. Thank you to everyone who took or shared the survey.
  6. Funded another year of the National Street Harassment Hotline, run by our partners at the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. Thank you to everyone who donated toward the cost or shared the hotline information.

Additionally, our work was covered by a range of media outlets like Newsweek, USA Today, Runner’s World, Shape and The Economist. The media interview I’m most proud of is the one I did for NowThis News about the sexual harassment and assault of women with disabilities.

Looking forward to next year, please mark your calendars for the 10th International Anti-Street Harassment Week from April 19 to 25, 2020!

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On #GivingTuesday, Fund Our Hotline

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For #GivingTuesday, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to help fund our National Street Harassment Hotline and other programming!!
Having a knowledgeable, understanding person to talk to about street harassment can help a lot of people recover from it and heal. Your donation will ensure that our free, 24/7 hotline continues to run and offer that support to people in need!
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Study: Sexism like Street Harassment Affects Young Women

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Via Refinery29:

“Young women who experience sexism are five times more likely to suffer from clinical depression, a new study has found.
The study also found that women aged between 18 and 30 are more likely than those in any other age group to experience sexism – be it at school, work, on public transport, in taxis or outside of the home.
More than four in five young women who said they’d experienced sexism reported being subjected to street harassment.
“I think it’s easier for people to get away with sexism in public because harassing a stranger doesn’t usually have any consequences,” a panel member told the Young Women’s Trust and University College London, who jointly conducted the study. “The victim doesn’t know the other person and probably won’t see them again later.”
The study also found that young women aged between 18 and 30 who experienced sexism were most likely to report mental health problems four years later. Another panel member said: ‘Sexism sits in the core of you and if you try and ignore it and don’t address it, it rots away and the problems permeate to other areas of your life.'”
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He Killed Her For Ignoring His Advances

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Updated: Here is a good piece on Ruth George’s murder at the Chicago Tribune, including: “Men need to recognize that catcalling isn’t a compliment and understand why women bristle at the common request that they “smile.” The fact that a male notices a female on the street doesn’t give him the right to make a judgment or comment. And if she tries to lighten the mood with a smile or a joke, trust us: She’s not flirting. She just wants him to go away without lashing out. She wants him to let her walk away safe.”
Hello SSH Community –

First, you haven’t heard from me in a while as my time away from my day-job has been focused on caring for my toddler while he’s been in and out of the hospital, facing repeat illnesses and requiring many doctor and specialist visits. I still try to post relevant news stories regularly on our Facebook page, and the free street harassment support hotline is still available 24/7 (and is what your donations can help continue to fund).

But here I am writing to you today because this news story shook me — a 19-year-old honors college student named Ruth George was killed by a man in Chicago after she ignored his “catcalls” and verbal harassment. At the time, she was walking near campus to her car in a parking garage and, angry that she ignored him, he followed her, strangled her, raped her and left her dead in the backseat of her car.

The brutality of his actions are shocking. The normalcy of what she was doing when this occurred – just walking to her car from her campus – is scary. My heart goes out to her family and friends. This never should have happened.

Over the 13 years I’ve been researching and writing on this issue, I’ve read at least two dozen of these stories. Usually the man is mad the woman ignored him and he escalates to lethal violence. That similarity comes up over and over again. It makes me think — How many times have we all been told to ignore someone who was bullying or harassing us? It’s still pretty common advice even though obviously there is no guarantee that it will keep you safe — indeed instead research suggests that a calm, short, assertive response may be the best strategy.

What Ruth’s tragic story also makes clear is that telling people how to respond to their harassers will not end this problem. Instead, we need to focus on ending the systems, attitudes and culture that allows harassment and violence to occur in the first place. We need communities involved. We need to listen to the voices of those most affected, including girls and teenagers.

Recent Examples of What We Need:
1 – As a long-time runner whose faced countless incidents of harassment, I am proud to be part of the current November Runner’s World issue that focuses on what communities can do about stopping the harassment of runners. As announced in the issue, Runner’s World and Women’s Health have a new initiative to address this called Runners Alliance.

2 – Many of the community tactics Runner’s World covers in this article are applicable to street harassment in general, including the efforts of organizations like Men Can Stop Rape and Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS).

3 – Here in Washington, DC, thanks to CASS and others, our city government is tackling this issue in a holistic way, with a city-wide survey and PSAs being two of the outcomes so far. Our transit agency is too, and our latest joint campaign that’s up on the system focuses on what witnesses of harassment can do.

4 – Plan International is currently undertaking a Chalk Back for young women around the world to raise awareness about street harassment, as part of the current 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.

Additionally, of course, ideally we need lessons on sexual harassment and consent in schools and we need politicians/celebrities/public figures to treat women with respect and consent.

What will you do to advocate for and help create a safer community for all?

-Holly
Stop Street Harassment Founder & CEO

P.S. Please consider a tax deductible-donation to support our work.

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“Like a wolf who wanted to devour a smaller, weaker animal”

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I was on vacation and in a mall in Salt Lake City with my family. I don’t remember exactly how old I was, probably around 12. A guy who was much older than me (teens or early 20s? It’s hard to say now looking back; all I knew at the time was that he was much older than me) saw me in a store and began staring at me in a creepy way. I believe he was with a friend or two. Then he proceeded to follow me –remember, I was with my family, including my father who is an extremely tall and intimidating man –around the mall for an uncomfortably long time, all the while giving me the same creepy stare, like a wolf who wanted to devour a smaller, weaker animal.

I still remember his face and my growing panic. It was terrifying because even the fact that I was with my mother, father and sister didn’t deter him from stalking me. He eventually lost interest, but I’ll never forget my terror. I had no idea what was going on. I was pre-pubescent and still looked very much like a child; at that time, I did not, in any way, think of myself as being attractive to anyone of the opposite sex, so I did not understand what was happening.

– 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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