Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Sri Lanka campaign reached 30,000 commuters in one week

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SHOW You Care Participant. Image via Sri Lanka Unites

A few weeks ago, I blogged about how Sri Lanka Unites in Colombo planned to to undertake an initiative called S.H.O.W You Care (S.H.O.W. = Stop Harassment of Women) to address sexual harassment on public transportation. Well, the campaign happened and this was sent by the organizers of the event:

“Hundreds of young men were given an informative training by Sri Lanka Unites and were split into teams of 3 with a mentor appointed to each team…

Starting Monday, June 25th, hundreds of young men boarded buses according to a previously formulated strategic plan. During the course of the campaign which lasted one week, over one thousand buses were covered, reaching over thirty thousand commuters in Colombo.

The young men, apologized to women in the buses for any harassment they have encountered in the past, providing them with information on legal recourse available to them if they experience such treatment in the future. Next they charged the men to take the responsibility to safeguard this right and the negative reflection on them, if they fail.

The response from the commuters on buses was astounding. Passengers on the buses, both male and female, were very responsive to the campaign. Many encouraged the efforts of the young men, asked for more information about the campaign and Sri Lanka Unites. The passengers were eager to engage in conversations regarding the issue of harassment on public transportation and were heartened by the efforts of the young men to attempt to resolve this problem in the city of Colombo.”

Total Number of Buses: 1225
Routes Covered: 49
Estimated Number of Commuters Reached: 36750

Well done!! It’s so important to engage men as allies and change-makers. This is not a “women’s” issue. It impacts all of us and we all have a responsibility to help end it.

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Employers should care about street harassment

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Should employers be concerned about the street harassment their employees face going to and from work?
Yes, while employers aren’t legally obligated to do anything about commuter harassment, they should care about it.

1 – Commuter harassment contributes to job turnover when people get so sick of the harassers along their commute that they decide to quit (this happened to 9% of respondents for a survey I conducted for my book).

2 – It can cause a decrease in work productivity if harassment in the morning makes an employee too upset and distracted to do their job.

3 – The harassment can also mean fewer people are willing to stay late to work or to attend networking events or meetings because of the fear of harassment on their way home.


I wrote about commuter harassment for Forbes.com last year and this past spring, Business and Legal Resource, Inc. (BLR), a leading human resources organization, wrote about it, too.

On Monday, while I was on a business trip in Connecticut, I had the opportunity to meet with some of the staff at BLR. We chatted for about 45 minutes about commuter harassment and they were very interested and open to the idea that employers SHOULD care about the harassment employees face during the commute. In fact, BLR was so interested in the issue that they conducted a short video interview with me for their website, where HR professionals across the country can view it and learn more about commuter harassment.

In the video clip, I offer a few recommendations for what employers can do. The Forbes.com article details a few, too. So view it and feel free to share it with HR representatives at your job.

Have you faced street harassment during your commute? What impact has it had on your job? Has your employer ever addressed that type of sexual harassment?

 

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