Stop Street Harassment

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Thank You – International Anti-Street Harassment Week 2021

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Scores of groups in at least 30 countries, on six continents, joined us in raising awareness about street harassment during the 11th annual International Anti-Street Harassment Week. Thank you so much for joining us.

Here’s a list of participating groups and a photo album documenting much of what took place (you can add your own photos if you don’t see them there!)

With COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions underway in many parts of the world, most of the activism took place online, and people used a lot of creativity in sharing stories, statistics and facts about street harassment on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Groups like OCAC Guatemala, Accion Respectook, Gender Hug Azerbaijan, Hollaback! Jakarta, Historias de Acoso Callejero and Our Streets Now posted facts and informational graphics each day on their Instagram accounts.

There were zoom panels, tweet chats, Instagram Live discussions and so many posts across the platforms, many of them hosted by our main partner for the week, Safecity. Safecity also ran a “Confidence is Beautiful” campaign on social media.

L’Oreal Paris was another big partner and they released the results of their 15-country study and encouraged people to share their stories and take an active bystander campaign they run in collaboration with Hollaback! Several celebrities joined their campaign to encourage bystander action.

The Chalk Back/Catcalls of NYC was another critical partner this year and their groups did chalking in cities across the globe. Catcalls of NYC did a big chalking event and in partnership with The Real Catwalk held a story-telling, chalking, reclaim-your-power event.

Many other groups did chalking, put up stickers, posters and flyers in their community and held awareness-raising events like demonstrations and rallies.

  • There were three rallies against street harassment held in the Netherlands organized by various groups, for instance.
  • Plan Belgium held a “safety walk” in a few cities to evaluate what could be improved to make the city feel safer.
  • Plan UK and Our Streets Now collaborated to release a PSA campaign on billboards and bus stops across the UK for their “Crime not Compliment” campaign aimed at changing national laws (sign the petition).
  • In Lambeth, UK, there was a violence against women forum where street harassment was part of the discussion.

In Australia, the organization It’s Not a Compliment launched a new campaign #NoSpaceForHarassment with story-sharing, videos and social media posts. They launched the results of a new study about street harassment in Victoria at an in-person event. And they made a video with anti-harassment groups around the world: Observatorio Contra el Acoso Chile, Stop harcèlement de rue, Next Stop_mi, Fairspace, Bristol Zero Tolerance and 婦女新知基金會

This is a challenging time in the world, with COVID-19 cases continuing to surge, and with it issues like poverty, hunger and joblessness soaring. Many of us have even less time to engage in activism as we take on more care-taking duties + work (me included!). But even still, street harassment continues to be a big problem and it’s important for us to speak out when and how we can – and we appreciate everyone who took the time to join in. Your stories, your voice, your time matters. Together we are stronger.

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Share Your Story – Safecity and Catcalls Collaboration

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Check out this new collaboration and way to help document street harassment stories –>

No one deserves to face street harassment. We all deserve safe access to public space. This #antistreetharassmentweek Catcalls of NYC and Safecity launched their collaboration so that together they can collect more stories of street harassment.

Catcallsof NYC receives many DMs about their communities’ experiences so that they can provide support and chalk the incidents. But as a volunteer-based team, it is difficult to collect all the stories in one place and organize the data. So this collaboration allows for everyone who feels comfortable to report their stories to the Safecity app, available in the App Store for iPhones and androids and on the website. Catcalls will pick up the stories from there and chalk them. They will still be available for sharing stories on DM, but this new tool will ensure that all the stories contribute to a larger map of street harassment. We wish to make sure that everyone knows the magnitude of this problem. Report your story today.

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International Anti-Street Harassment Week 2021 Begins

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This year is another stressful, scary and unusual one as COVID-19 cases rise in many regions of the world. But speaking out about street harassment during International Anti-Street Harassment Week (April 11-17) continues to be important because it is still happening and affecting millions of lives.

So far, I’ve heard from groups in nearly 20 countries who are or will be commemorating the week by posting information online, collecting stories, holding rallies, hosting tweet chats and zoom trainings and discussions, chalking and demonstrating — and it’s so inspiring to see what’s happened so far! View photos from our album.

Media coverage for the week has already begun to and includes three articles in three countries: Columbia News Service (US), de Gelderlander (Netherlands) and Sunday Midday (India). Also, L’Oreal Paris shared their survey results and posted a video of singer Celine Dione talking about the issue on their IG account!

While most events today took place online (see information about them here), such as a tweet chat hosted by Safecity and an Instagram Live Q&A by Our Streets Now, it was exciting and impressive to see three offline rallies take place in the Netherlands (with masks and social distancing) and in Nashville, TN (USA). See more photos.

Netherlands!
Nashville, TN!

Thank you so much to everyone who has joined or plans to join this week! And if you need some ideas for what to do, here you go!

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Results of L’Oreal Paris’s 15-Country Street Harassment Study

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L’Oreal Paris, one of our partners for this year’s International Anti-Street Harassment Week, recently released the results of a 15-country study on street harassment. With survey firm IPSOS, they surveyed a representative sample of around 1,000 women in each country between Jan. 25th – Feb. 9th, 2021, so the results represent approximately 15,000 women’s experience.

First, the results confirm once again that this is a pervasive and global problem! Around 80 percent of women across the 15 countries said they’ve experienced street harassment (with the highest figures coming from South Africa – 94% and Mexico – 92%).** The countries included in the survey were: Brazil, Canada, China, France, India, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Spain, South Africa, Thailand, UAE, UK, and USA.

Personal experiences of street harassment in their lifetime, by country

The results also show how much this violation continued during the past year of the COVID-19 pandemic, even with all the quarantines, lockdowns, social distancing, and increase in working and going to school remotely that came with it. Around one in three women (31%) said they faced street harassment last year. This figure is 46 percent for those ages 18 to 34. Additionally, 42 percent said they witnessed street harassment occur in the last year.

1 in 3 women in 14 countries said they have experienced street harassment in the last year

Thinking about the last year, 50 percent of respondents said they did not feel safe in public spaces! Among these women, reasons they gave for feeling unsafe included: not being able to see people’s faces behind masks (51%), there are fewer people around (36%), and shops are closed (10%).

75 percent said they avoided certain public spaces to try to avoid street harassment and 54 percent said they avoided some forms of public transportation specifically.

A unique feature of being in public spaces this past year is that many or most people wore masks. This did not help the situation of street harassment. Instead, 72 percent of women felt harassers were emboldened to harass because of the increased anonymity a mask gave them.

It is clear that street harassment continues to affect so many women’s lives in really significant and scary ways — the murder of British woman Sarah Everard while she walked home last month emphasizes this reality too.

L’Oreal Paris is partnering with Hollaback! to host free bystander online training sessions called Stand Up! to help combat this widespread problem. Check out the programs being offered this week and join one if you can!

Sign up for a free, interactive 1 hour Zoom training on standing UP against street harassment

** This survey only focused on women, ages 18 and up, and if teenagers and pre-teens were included and persons of all genders from the LGBTQ community and other targeted communities, I’m sure these figures would be even higher.

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One Week Until Anti-Street Harassment Week 2021!

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Dear Friends, 

My body is not public property.

The results of a groundbreaking street harassment survey conducted by our partner L’Oreal Paris of 14,000 women in 14 countries will be released for International Anti-Street Harassment Week (April 11-17).

The findings highlight how global this human rights violation is and also includes statistics from the pandemic year. They show how much this issue continues to affect people everywhere, even during this unusual global health crisis.

Indeed, street harassment is an on-going global health crisis. This is evident by the recent statistics and campaigns around the world that document it and work to end it.

Will you join us next week in speaking out against this human rights violation? Use the hashtag #stopstreetharassment and tag @pinthecreep and @stopstharassmnt on social media.

Need an Idea? — Submit to the Safecity Campaign
Safecity is inviting people to participate in Week by submitting quotes for posters they’ll create and share on social media.

“This year the campaign is Confidence is Beautiful. Confidence to walk down a street without worry, confidence to loiter in public spaces, confidence to travel further to explore work, leisure and more. But that cannot happen if streets are not safe. We need to spotlight the issue, create urgency to act and encourage men to take action.” Submit your quotes and pictures here.

Need another Idea? — Share Your Pandemic Street Harassment Stories
Share your experiences and stories with street harassment across the pandemic – and/or submit artwork to stopstreetharassment@gmail.com.

Sexual Assault Awareness Month
In the U.S., April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Learn more about how to get involved with this month-long campaign. April 6 is the Day of Action — find ways to participate.

“Support Survivors During Sexual Assault Awareness Month”

Anti-SH Week Partners
Thank you to Safecity/Red Dot Foundation, Catcalls of NYC and L’Oreal Paris for partnering with us this year. Over the week, you can take part in L’Oréal Paris and Hollaback! training on how to safely intervene if you witness or experience street harassment.

Watch the Catcalls Turns 5 Event
If you missed our joint event with Catcalls of NYC for their 5th anniversary, you can watch it here! What an empowering and uplifting program.

Thank you! 

-Holly

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