Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

81% of Women and 43% of Men Have Experienced Sexual Abuse in USA

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I’m excited to share that our new study was released this morning!

In January 2018, SSH commissioned a 2,000-person, nationally representative survey on sexual harassment and assault, conducted by GfK. It found that nationwide, 81% of women and 43% of men reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment and/or assault in their lifetime.

While verbal sexual harassment was the most common form (77% of women and 34% of men), an alarming 51% of women and 17% of men said they were touched or groped in an unwelcome way, and 27% of women and 7% of men survived sexual assault.

This survey is the first to look at a range of sexual harassment behaviors, track the various locations where people experience sexual harassment and assault (from public spaces to homes to schools to workplaces to online etc), and identify who perpetrators are in relation to the respondents (e.g. strangers, coworkers, family members).

When the sample size allowed, the report breaks down people’s experiences by demographics like race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, household income, disability status, age, and region of the country.

READ: Full Report | Two-Page Executive Summary | Survey Questions | Press Release 

Pro bono data analysis for the survey was completed by the UC San Diego Center on Gender Equity and Health. Their team, the team at Raliance and a dozen advisory committee members offered input and invaluable help throughout the process.

Here’s the media coverage so far!

New York Times, “Numbers Hint at Why #MeToo Took Off: The Sheer Number Who Can Say Me Too.“

NPR, “A New Survey Finds 81 Percent Of Women Have Experienced Sexual Harassment.“

VOX News, “Measuring #MeToo: more than 80 percent of women have been sexually harassed or assaulted.“

Ms. Magazine Blog, “What the Numbers Behind the #MeToo Movement Show Us.“

Many thanks to our donors, board and advisory committee for helping make this happen, as well as our partner orgs!!

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Save the Date for Anti-Street Harassment Week 2018!

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This  is our 8th year organizing global action across International Anti-Street Harassment Week! Groups and people in around 40 countries participate each year. Will you?

Dates: April 8 – 14, 2018

Co-Sponsors: Join us as a participating co-sponsoring organization, group, campus or institution

Participate: No action is too small to make a difference in raising awareness. Find ideas here!

Events: If you’re planning an event, let us know so we can help advertise it! This can include on- or off-line actions, including tweet chats! Complete this form with the details.

Contact: StopStreetHarassment@gmail.com if you plan to co-sponsor, participate and/or host an event!! (And fill out this form for your event.)

View photos from our 2017 actions and read the wrap-up report.

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2018 Plans for DC-Area Anti-Harassment Transit Efforts

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WMATA, CASS and SSH Staff at a 2018 planning meeting

It’s been nearly six years since we started working with Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS) and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority on efforts to address and prevent sexual harassment on the transit system. Today, Chantal from CASS and I attended a 2018 planning meeting at WMATA HQ and we are looking forward to various forthcoming projects:

1) Audio announcements letting people know how to report harassment they experience or witness will start being played on Metro trains this month and on buses in the spring. They asked if one of us would record them and I ended up being the one who did. So if you’re in the area, listen for my voice on Metro!!

2) During International Anti-Street Harassment Week (April 8-14), we will partner together for our annual outreach day at various Metro stations. We’ll have new flyers, bracelets, and perhaps other giveaways, so stay tuned. We’ll also be looking for volunteers to help distribute information (date TBD but likely during evening rush hour on April 10 or 11).

3) Currently the third wave of print PSAs are up on the system. They are gorgeous! But if they’re up too long, people get used to them and don’t notice them anymore. They went up in Nov 2016, so it’s about time for new ads. We will work on a new set of ads over the summer.

4) We began a discussion about doing a follow-up survey of some kind to the 2016 ridership survey on sexual harassment to see how the latest print ads have been received and to see if people’s experiences with harassment have changed at all.

Those were the main updates. We are grateful that WMATA continues to dedicate time and resources to making the transit system safer.

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Looking Ahead to SSH Programs in 2018

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Municipal Office of Women of Villa Nueva Guatemala took part in Anti-SH Week 2017. Will you take part in our week in 2018?

2017 was a big year, and 2018 looks like it will be even bigger!

As we look toward 2018, we already have a few projects on the horizon:

1. Blog Correspondents Program: We are looking for applicants for our first cohort of Blog Correspondents! Apply by Jan. 7!

2. National Survey: Thanks to our generous donors, PinPoint Foundation and Raliance, we are moving forward with the survey firm GfK to conduct a nationally representative survey on sexual abuse across all the spaces it occurs. The survey draft is under review by our advisory committee right now and we hope to see the 2000-person survey conducted in mid-January. Afterward, pro bono data analyst will be conducted by Dr. Anita Raj, Director of UC San Diego’s Center on Gender Equity and Health. We hope to release the timely report in March 2018!

3. International Anti-Street Harassment Week: Our 8th annual week of awareness will take place from April 8 to 14, 2018! If your group or organization would like to co-sponsor, please be in touch with StopStreetHarassment@yahoo.com. Stay tuned for more information, including a toolkit for community action that is tied to the national survey.

4. National Hotline: We will continue to partner with RAINN to offer the only national hotline dedicated to ending street harassment. It costs about $400 per month to run both the phone and online hotline. Your tax-deductible donation can help keep the hotline running!

May 2018 will mark our 10-year anniversary, so that will also make it a big year for us.

Thank you for being part of our community, and we look forward to working with you more in 2018!

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