girls Archives | Stop Street Harassment

Adult Men, Stop Harassing Girls!

July 14, 2019 By HKearl

Street harassment is a big problem in our country, especially for young women and girls. According to our nationally representative surveys, 71% of women have faced sexual harassment in public spaces, and most harassed women say their first incident of sexual harassment took place when they were a teenager or younger.

Twitter user @heterochromance asked women about their first street harassment experience a few days ago, and quickly her thread drew more than 6,000 comments. She specifically asked women about adult men catcalling them in light of multimillionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein being arrested on sex trafficking charges. His victims were as young as 14 years old.

Men like Epstein and singer R. Kelly, who was recently arrested for various charges of abusing women and girls, are not an anomaly for preying on girls. They may just be an anomaly for the extent to which they did so – and for how long they got away with it.

In the nearly 13 years that I have been researching, writing and speaking out about street harassment, I have noticed that this is a common theme when women recall their early experiences with street harassment. The perpetrators were not usually boys their own age, but instead, men. A few weeks ago, I created an online survey to investigate this. Here are the results, with a few points highlighted below.

Around 250 people took the online survey, and 94% identified as female. When asked about their age at the time of their first experience of street harassment, they were quite young. Almost 70% said they were 13 years old or younger. Another 24% percent said they were 14 to 16 years old.

When asked about the age of their harassers (nearly all of whom were identified as male), the age difference was alarming; 55% said the men were in their 30s or older. Specifically:

8% said the men were in their 50s
20% said the men were in their 40s
27% said the men were in their 30s
22% said the men were in their 20s
12% said the boys were in their teens, but older than them
7% said the boys were their same age

The remaining 4% of respondents said the harassers were either younger than them or older than 50s. Again, most girls were elementary or middle school age and nearly all of them were high school age or younger at the time.

Around 80% of respondents said this first incident of street harassment caused them to feel less safe in the world afterward, and 54% said it caused them to change their life in some way.

This is truly horrible and should be unacceptable in our society. We must end our culture of male privilege that allows adult men to prey on girls, often with impunity!!

16 Days – Day 1: Research on Girls’ Safety

November 25, 2018 By HKearl

From sexual harassment and violence in homes to the streets, from schools to workplaces, women’s and girls’ equality and right to be safe is impeded every day by gender-based violence. Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, as designated by the United Nations to recognize this human rights violation and to say ENOUGH. Everyone deserves a life that is safe and free from violence.

What will you do to speak out against men’s violence against women and girls, including street harassment?

Today also marks the start of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. It will conclude on 10 December, International Human Rights Day.

Each day across the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, we will highlight a 2018 activism effort undertaken to stop street harassment or a personal story about stopping harassers!

Day #1: Research on Girls’ Safety

Plan International released a report, based on interviews with 21,000 girls in Delhi, Kampala, Lima, Madrid and Sydney, that says street harassment is a pervasive problem for them. One researcher said, “The level of danger girls are facing in cities is shocking and we all have a role to play in ensuring everybody feels safe in our cities — whether they are on the street, on public transport or in parks. Individuals, communities, governments and authorities should all be spurred to act.”

Plan International Australia suggests that girls should be involved in planning cities to reduced gender-based exclusion and street harassment. They also recommend “behavior change programs that target toxic masculinity, tackle social norms and address the root causes of gender-based street harassment.”

“We have to have this conversation now. Good men, there are a lot of them, they’re a majority, they have to start speaking up and speaking out and they have to start calling out this behaviour because enough is enough. It shouldn’t be on girls to fix this problem,” said Plan International Australia CEO Susanne Legena.

In another report by Plan International, titled “Girls’ Safety in Cities across the World“, almost 400 experts in 22 cities across six continents discussed the safety risks that girls and young women face. It found that Lima is the world’s most dangerous city for girls to go out alone, while Stockholm is the safest city for sexual harassment and for girls to leave the house alone. “The poll is the first of its kind to highlight the universality of the dangers girls and young women face in cities and public spaces across different societies and cultures, which it says affects the lives of millions and yet remains ignored.”

Lastly, research conducted by Plan International UK found that one in three girls in the UK have been street harassed while wearing their school uniform and 66% have faced some kind of street harassment overall. They found that many girls feel street harassment is “all part of growing up.”

The organization has made several recommendations, including:

Public awareness campaigns to spread the message that street harassment “is not OK”
Offer training for bystanders on how to safely intervene
Support boys and men to change their attitudes and challenge harassment
Provide relationship and sex education to young people
Training for workers in public places (shop staff, bus drivers) on spotting harassment and reporting it

“Hey babe, come and join me in my bed tonight”

November 20, 2017 By Contributor

I’ve been sexually harassed three times in the past month, just on the street. Honestly, I don’t even know if it’s sexual harassment or not, but it makes me feel really intimated and scared to walk on streets even just to go to the shop.

I’m only 15 years old, so for this to be happening to someone at such a young age, really shocks me.

The first time it happened was when I was going to meet a friend. I dressed up nicely, in large trousers and a top, put on light makeup. This was around 1 p.m. when it happened. I was walking around the corner of the road I lived on and this boy, maybe three years older than me, said, “Oi babe, you’re so peng.” And walks off.

The next time it happened was when I was taking my mum’s washing to dry at the laundrette. I had no makeup on, and I wasn’t wearing anything special, yet while I was walking past a group of boys, maybe again three years older than me, they stopped me and one guy said, “Please can I see your panties?” Then when I walked off, they started wolf whistling and then said, “Oh, you play hard to get”.

The third time happened when I was in my school uniform. I was walking past a guy, maybe of around 40 years of age, and said, “Hey babe, come and join me in my bed tonight.” I wanted to cry.

The fact that I can’t even feel safe in my own area, let alone somewhere else, and to be able to walk freely at such a young age disgusts me.

– Anonymous

Location: London

Need support? Call the toll-free National Street Harassment hotline: 855-897-5910

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for ideas.

UK Study Shows Objectification, Street Harassment Affects Girls

October 3, 2016 By HKearl

Each year, Girlguiding, the UK’s leading charity for girls and young women, asks girls what they think through our Girls’ Attitudes Survey. They collect the views of over 1,600 girls and young women aged 7 to 21 across the country.

This year’s report shows that safety in public spaces is a big concern.

So is objectification. Sadly, 36% of seven to 10-year-old girls believe they are rated more on their looks than their abilities.

Overall, Girlguiding says its survey shows girls and young women face “multiple, compound pressures” including exposure to images that objectify women, sexist online abuse and street harassment.

“It’s sad that two five year old girls had to learn about sex like that.”

April 25, 2016 By Contributor

When I was about four or five, I was riding my bike with my sister who was the same age.

Well, at one point my sister had ridden up the road but hadn’t come back, so I went up to find her. I found her with two guys about high school age. The guys asked me if I wanted to suck their d****. I had no idea what they meant, clearly, so then they offered me money to do it.

Well, I immediately went home and told my mom, who then went and got my sister. She took us to the library to give us a crash course on sex education.

It’s sad that two five year old girls had to learn about sex like that.

Optional: What’s one way you think we can make public places safer for everyone?

Better education. People need to learn that this isn’t ok and that it shouldn’t be tolerated

– Anonymous

Location: By my house

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea.