Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

#MeToo 2024 Study Released Today

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#MeToo 2024 Research Report

Thank you, SSH community who helped fund a 2024 national study on sexual harassment and assault — it came out TODAY!

Roughly 1 in 4 U.S. adults (26%), or more than 68 million people, experienced sexual harassment or assault in the past year alone, with significantly higher rates for women (32%) compared to men (15%).

This #MeToo 2024 Report builds on our 2018 and 2019 surveys. This national study was led by the Newcomb Institute at Tulane University and was supported by Stop Street Harassment, Valor and Raliance. The survey was conducted by NORC in spring 2024, of more than 3,300 U.S. adults over age 18.

READ: Full Report | Executive Summary | Press Release | Survey Questions 

The findings show that despite heightened awareness and prevention efforts from the #MeToo movement that gained national attention in 2017, most women (82%) and nearly half of all men (42%) have experienced sexual harassment or assault in their lifetime.

These abuses often occur as sexual harassment in public spaces, 73% for women and 24% for men.

Over half of women (56%) experience sexual harassment or assault by age 18. Alarmingly, one in five women (20%) first experience sexual harassment or assault before the age of 13 — and most often in the form of sexual harassment in public spaces without intervention.

Notably, it has been 10 years since our 2014 national survey on street harassment, which showed that 65% of women and 25% of men had faced sexual harassment or assault in public spaces. Thus, in 10 years, the rate for women has increased — 65% to 73%, while it has stayed around the same for men — 25% to 24%.

More work is needed to work to stop sexual harassment and abuse, especially in public spaces and especially by men toward girls.

This is unacceptable! We must continue to speak out and work to make public spaces safe for everyone.

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Join International Anti-Street Harassment Week 2022

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In one week, we will commemorate the 12th annual International Anti-Street Harassment Week, led by our partner Red Dot Foundation/Safecity, with support from groups like ChalkBack, StandUp and Right to Be.


We encourage you to speak out about street harassment in whatever way feels safe and empowering to you, from writing chalk messages on local sidewalks to sharing a story on social media or in person to a friend. Every act helps show how pervasive this problem is and how much it negatively affects the lives of so many people. That increased awareness can imbue empathy and spur people, entities and governments to take action — and ultimately help us work to end the problem.

On social media, you can use and/or follow the hashtag #StopStreetHarassment.

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Giving Tuesday – Fund the Hotline

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Over 400 people used our National Street Harassment Hotline this past year to receive emotional support and advice. We are grateful to our partners at RAINN who run the hotline for us and to our donors who cover the costs of running the hotline.

For our Giving Tuesday campaign this year, we invite you to donate $10 or more toward the hotline. The costs of running it go up the more visitors there are, and while the minimum cost per month is $275, every month since April, the visitors and cost has been up, sometimes as high as $1000 per month. Our goal is to raise $5000 for 2022 to ensure we are ready for a continued increase user-ship. 100% of the funds raised will go directly toward running the hotline.

Thank you so much for your help and for ensuring that people in need can receive assistance and support.

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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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