As the decade of the 2010s ends, I am amazed by how much progress we saw regarding street harassment, and notably, how much more seriously it was taken by governments, organizations, journalists, academics and individuals.
First, it’s important to acknowledge that street harassment is an old issue, and one that women have worked to address in various ways for decades. Their action ranged from individual efforts like warding off harassers with parasols and poking gropers with hatpins to collective action like forming self-defense and anti-harassment clubs to organizing boycotts and protests.
A big difference between these prior efforts and current ones is the Internet and our ability to document harassment with video recordings and photos, spread stories and information widely and collaborate and organize efforts in larger ways.
In the 2010s, we saw how people’s increased access to the Internet, mobile phones and social media helped propel efforts to prevent and stop street harassment. For instance, viral videos in places like Brussels, Peru and the U.S. spurred laws, studies and more social understanding of the problem. The widely shared stories of the bus gang rape and murder in Delhi and the mob attacks on women protesters at Tahrir Square in Cairo and the New Year’s Eve street attacks in Germany brought outrage, protests, and action. Many times, tweet chats and threads about street harassment spurred news stories.
Overall, the greater visibility of street harassment – and more recognition of the negative outcomes it has on people and communities – inspired individual and collective action, led to new efforts by government agencies and international NGOs, prompted more studies and books on the topic, changed how journalists write about the topic, and more.
Seven Examples of Progress and Change in the 2010s:*
- Anti-street harassment groups created by women who were fed up blossomed across the world, including the Observatorio Contra el Acoso Callejero (OCAC) network in Latin America, ProChange in Germany and the Stop Harcelement de la Rue in France, and a slew of groups in Egypt and India. These groups have helped pass laws, organized art and street events, held workshops, educated lawmakers and police officers, and more. Recently, Catcalls of NYC has inspired around 100 similar efforts in other parts of the world, where individuals go to the streets and use chalk to write the words street harassers uttered to them in order to take back their power and raise awareness.
- UN Women launched a Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces programme in 2010, shared specific guidance to all member states on addressing street harassment in 2013, and included safety in public spaces as a measure of success for the Sustainable Development Goals that were finalized in 2016.
- Several governments passed national or city-level laws on street harassment, including in countries like Belgium, France, Peru, Philippines, and the US. In the US, several city council hearings occurred on the topic for the first time, starting in Oct. 2010 in New York City. In the US, various transit agencies launched anti-harassment campaigns for the first time, like in Washington DC and Los Angeles, while agencies like Boston and Chicago released new efforts to their existing campaigns.
- Many anti-harassment and anti-violence organizations, including ones on college campuses, began doing much more to include street harassment on the continuum of gender-based violence and to at least mention it or acknowledge the connection in their other work. Just this year, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network added a page on street harassment to their website.
- More organizations that focus on issues affecting girls are tackling street harassment. Notably, Plan International has a large campaign now and has done lots of research on the topic. The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts is another example.
- There were more academic studies conducted in places like the US, UK and Australia on street harassment – or on sexual harassment or sexism more broadly with street harassment as a subset – that show how and why it’s a serious issue that must be addressed. While before 2010, there was only one book solely about street harassment and only a handful that addressed it in some way, there were several books released about it in the 2010s, including three books that I authored.
- The way most news media covers street harassment shifted this decade. It is much rarer for journalists and outlets to portray it as a compliment, minor annoyance or no big deal (for instance, like in this CNN article from 2008) and instead it is portrayed as a serious issue. Instead, it is recognized as something wrong, something that has a negative affect on people, and something that should change.
SSH and the 2010s:
The 2010s were big for Stop Street Harassment, too, especially considering we do not have any full-time or paid staff. For instance, this decade, we launched International Anti-Street Harassment Week (2011), oversaw the first nationally representative study on street harassment in the US (2014) and launched the world’s first street harassment hotline (2016). We oversaw several years of Blog Correspondent cohorts, funded more than dozen Safe Public Spaces Mentoring teams, and had close to 2 million visitors to our website (we changed web platforms in May 2011 and our analytics show 1.74 million visitors since then).
Personally, in the 2010s, I authored around 80 op-eds on street harassment alone, gave over 150 talks, and responded to over 350 media interviews – all of which helped raise the visibility of the issue. I also did consulting for entities like UN Women and US Dept of State on the topic and gave pro bono advice to places like Runner’s World, Google and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
What Will the 2020s Bring?
Looking ahead to the 2020s, I’m not sure what to expect. The biggest burst of changes and actions around street harassment globally (e.g. in UN policies) and in the U.S. occurred between 2010-2016. Once street harassment becomes part of policies, there isn’t as much work to do – the goal was met, to some extent.
Additionally, I think things like Donald Trump being elected president in the U.S., anti-migrant policies globally, and growing awareness of climate change/climate crisis has taken some focus away from street harassment. I also think the #MeToo movement has taken a lot of attention away from street harassment and placed it more fully on workplace sexual harassment. This is despite our two recent studies showing that street harassment is the form of harassment most frequently experienced by persons of all genders and the one that people are most likely to experience first. Thus, with these patterns already established, I’m not sure what changes we’ll see regarding street harassment in the coming decade.
But, I do think we’ll see some changes. For instance, each year for International Anti-Street Harassment Week, when I think, oh, this issue isn’t as interesting to people anymore, groups in upwards of 30 countries still take part. New groups and efforts continue to emerge. Newer social media platforms like Instagram and Snapchat are places where a lot of the awareness-raising occurs. So, perhaps in the 2020s, we will see activism in new countries that haven’t had it before – and we will see people share stories who haven’t shared them before, likely on whatever new platform comes out!
Also, I think what reflecting on history tells us is, there will be ebbs and flows in widespread focus on issues. The Internet will help us continue to share our stories and keep attention on street harassment to varying degrees, even when we’re in an ebbing period of overall less attention on the issue.
Personally, what I’d love to see happen in the 2020s is schools tackle the issue through sex education / life skills courses, and organizations that work with boys and young men to talk about the topic with them head-on. We need to break the cycle of harassment and end the socialization that tells boys it’s okay and the right way to treat others. I’d also love to see more PSAs about street harassment go up in communities encouraging people to stand up and speak out when they see harassment occurring, and to see more entities undertake anti-street harassment efforts that don’t involve criminalization (like efforts the DC Government and Runner’s World/Women’s Health recently launched, as examples).
What do you see as the 2010s highlights for stopping street harassment and what are your wishes and hopes for 2020?
*Note: You can read more about many of these events and efforts — and more — in my 2015 book Stop Global Street Harassment: Growing Activism Around the World.
