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Our Latest Research is Out Now!

April 30, 2019 By HKearl

To close out Sexual Assault Awareness Month, on April 30, 2019, SSH, UCSD Center on Gender Equity and Health (GEH), RALIANCE, CALCASA and Promundo released a new joint national study.

NORC at the University of Chicago conducted the nationally representative survey of 1,182 women and 1,037 men across February – March 2019. They used the using the AmeriSpeak Panel. UCSD’s GEH did the data analysis.

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

Our findings include:

  • 81% of women and 43% of men reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment and/or assault in their lifetime. This graph shows the breakdown of the main categories:

  • The most frequently was listed location for sexual harassment is a public space, while most sexual assault takes place in private homes or residences.
    • 68% of women and 23% of men experienced sexual harassment at a public place like a street, store, park or restaurant. When you include mass transit and nightlife venues, that statistic rises to 71% women and 28% men. In other words, nearly all women who had experienced sexual harassment and/or assault had experienced it in public spaces (as well as perhaps other locations).
  • Sexual harassment and assault cause people, especially women, to feel anxiety or depression and prompt them to change their route or regular routine.
  • While experiences of sexual harassment and assault are highly prevalent, accusations of sexual harassment and assault are very rare.
  • Most people who said they committed sexual harassment also said they had experienced sexual harassment.

While we repeated a few questions from our 2018 survey, we chose to add new questions around false accusations this year in light of the Kavanaugh hearing and Betsy DeVos’s efforts to change Title IX guidelines.

We broke down differences by demographics and included the findings that were statistically significant. For instance:

  • 35% of Black women had experienced sexual harassment in the previous six months.
  • 35% of women with disabilities experienced sexual assault in their lifetime.
  • 95% of lesbian/bisexual women experienced some form of sexual harassment in their lifetime.

Check out the full report!

Thank you to all of our donors who made this report possible!

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Filed Under: disabilities, LGBTQ, national study, News stories, online harassment, public harassment, race, SSH programs, street harassment Tagged With: metoo, national study, research

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

February 21, 2018 By HKearl

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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Filed Under: LGBTQ, national study, News stories, online harassment, race, Resources, SSH programs, street harassment Tagged With: metoo, national study, research

New Street Harassment Report in Kosovo

February 24, 2016 By HKearl

The report release event, photo via the Kosovo Women's Network site
The report release event, photo via the Kosovo Women’s Network site

The body of research about the prevalence of street harassment is growing! This week a new report was released in Kosovo.

Via NWPTV:

“The Kosovo Women’s Network recently published the country’s first national report on sexual harassment, and the research shows what Kosovar women have always known: street harassment affects women across Kosovo, regardless of geographical location, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and able-bodiedness.

Although most Kosovars know that sexual harassment is harmful, a disturbing 40 percent of both men and women think that young women actually enjoy being harassed. The majority of Kosovars still think that women’s dress and behavior causes sexual harassment, and not our country’s culture of male entitlement.

Kosovo’s feminists have tools that we didn’t have before, the first being this research, which quantifiably demonstrates that sexual harassment is real, widespread, and threatens the safety of women and girls. The second tool is an upcoming app which will allow users to report sexual harassment in real time and directly contact the police through an emergency button.”

The victim-blaming attitudes are indeed disturbing.

I went on to read the report summary, and here is information about how it was conducted and a few more statistics:

“The research involved a review of the legal framework, a survey of 1,315 Kosovo citizens in 2015 and more than 200 interviews with representatives of public institutions, civil society, and other key actors. The report concludes with recommendations for amending the legal framework and improving institutional response to sexual harassment.

  • 48.5% of Kosovars have experienced some form of sexual harassment in their lifetimes.
  • 64.1% of women report having experienced sexual harassment, 32.5% of men state that they have.
  • The most common form of sexual harassment reported by respondents is having someone make unwelcome sexual comments, jokes, or gestures to or about them, including while walking down the street.
    • One in three women (34.2%) compared to only 1.6% of men had someone honk a vehicle horn at them while walking down the street.
    • 46.4% of women and only 3.9% of men had someone whistle at them
    • 26.4% of women and 3.3% of men had someone follow them
  • Women tend to be harassed more by unknown people in the street and friends than do men. Men are more likely to be harassed by friends than women.”

Good for the Kosovo Women’s Network for thoroughly researching this topic and bringing national and global attention to the issue. It’s harder to tackle a problem without data, so this is an important step.

Raporti: Ngacmimi seksual në Kosovë
http://www.womensnetwork.org/documents/20160224112147815.pdf

Research Report: Sexual Harassment in Kosovo
http://www.womensnetwork.org/documents/20160223185243349.pdf

Izveštaj Istraživanja: Seksualno uznemiravanje na Kosovu
http://www.womensnetwork.org/documents/20160224134742609.pdf

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Filed Under: News stories, Resources, street harassment Tagged With: kosovo, national study, research

Asian American Women Share their Stories

November 29, 2015 By HKearl

Note: Last year, SSH released a national study on street harassment that includes the results of a 2,000 person nationally representative survey and 10 focus groups with under-represented voices. As I have the opportunity and resources to do so, I will continue holding focus groups. Focus group #11 was with Asian American women in Boston, Massachusetts earlier this month. Below is a two-page summary from it, which is also now included in the research report (see pages 59-60). Thank you to the women who participated and to Sarah Chang for inspiring it and hosting it.

11.4.15 Asian American women SSH focus group in Boston, MAAsian American women in the SSH focus group in Boston, MA.

Asian American women’s harassment experiences are often overlooked. Thus, in November 2015, nine women with nations of origin from varying East Asian and Southeast Asian countries came together in Boston, Massachusetts, to document and talk about their experiences.

Participant Pam said, “I appreciate talking about identity and race. I think a lot of times in data and research, the Asian American voice is not included, which unintentionally leaves us silenced and reinforces the stereotype that we are silent.”

In sharing their stories, men following them, blocking their path, or engaging in repeated harassment emerged as common themes.

A man followed Catherine for approximately 45 minutes until she was able to lose him in a grocery store that had a back exit. She talked about her feeling of paranoia and fear. “All you want to do is shut down but you have to somehow keep going or something bad may happen.”

Eight white men harassed Jenn as she entered a subway station, then followed her and sat all around her as she waited for the subway. Then they surrounded her on the subway. “At this point I’m terrified,” she said. “I’m like what if they follow me to the stop? What if they get off at the stop with me?” Finally, before her stop, they got off.

Angela was in her car in an empty grocery store parking lot and as she was getting ready to leave, a man in a black SUV pulled up behind her, blocking her in. He came over and tapped on her window. Thinking he needed directions, she rolled down her window only for him to then tell her she was beautiful and hit on her. She rolled up her window and yelled that she needed to go. Fortunately, he drove away and let her.

A man engaged Cassie and the woman she was dating in conversation outside a club. Then he escalated to harassment, following them inside. He only left them alone once a bouncer ejected him from the club.

A man followed D. from the post office nearly all the way to her office. Finally he got the hint that she was uncomfortable

A man harassed Sarah three different times near her home, including telling her to “suck my dick.” She filed a police report.

Like women in other racial groups, many of their experiences with street harassment are racialized. They all agreed it is common for men to yell “Nǐ hǎo” or “Konichiwa” (“hello” in Chinese and Japanese, respectively) at them. Notably, this happens no matter the woman’s nation of origin.

When Catherine was reading on a park bench, a man repeatedly said “Nǐ hǎo” and “Konichiwa” to her, but then he quickly escalated to sexualized epithets. “Things like, ‘Oh your pussy must be sideways,’ and ‘has anyone ever fucked you?’” she said.

Various men have asked the women what they are. Katie said, “Instead of hello, they say what are you? Are you Chinese?”

Every woman said most, if not all, of her harassers have been non-Asian men, some of whom seem to be fetishizing them. Pam mused this may be because “There is this special race power element of ooh you’re this little Geisha who won’t talk about it.”

Several of them noted that the harassment tends to be worse when they are with another Asian American woman who is either a romantic partner or a friend.

Pam said, “It’s like some sick white man’s fantasy that there are two Asian American women together. It excites them even more.” As an example, she shared this story: “I was on the train with another Asian American female late at night and there were a bunch of white frat dude types and one was like, ‘Oooh who wants to eat Chinese food?’ and they just started getting nasty. You could tell they were so excited to see two Asian American women together.”

Cassie shared that “If I’m out with a woman [I’m dating], especially an Asian American woman, it’s usually like it’s really hard just to be out [because of harassers]…It feels really complicated in terms of race. I want to date people who look like me. But I feel safer with white people because they’re usually the ones I feel the most scared to be around. So if I’m with a white man, I feel like I have this pass… But it feels shitty.”

Many noted that the harassment began around puberty, usually by older men. N., for instance, said, “I have memories of my childhood and being in my teen years when people would harass me.”

Jenn began walking home from the bus stop around age 10 and she was often harassed, including by older Asian men. “That’s when I learned that my body was a sexual object,” she said. “I was a child learning that I would never be safe in my own body.”

When Diana was in middle school, she had to take the subway to the library alone in the afternoon. One day on the platform, a man repeatedly touched her lower back. She’s always tucked in her shirts ever since.

Several women noted that they try to drive or bicycle everywhere as a way to avoid harassment. Most women agreed they are never or rarely harassed when they are with another man, either a romantic partner or friend. N. observed from her experience, “If you don’t use public transportation, if you bike around, if you don’t interact with people, you don’t really get those catcalls.”

A few women shared how they feel they must be rude or stern in public because as soon as they are smiling, pleasant or engage in small talk with men, it escalates into harassment. Katie said, “I feel like any time I’ve just been pleasant out in the public space, I’ve been approached.”

Numerous women shared how their family and friends normalize the experiences or see it as a compliment. Angela said in her family it was seen as “boys being boys.” Now, she shares how she feels scrutinized and unsafe to explain why it’s not okay.

These were their ideas for change:

  1. Changing the normalcy of street harassment and ending the perception that it’s a compliment.
  2. Having boys and men listen to women’s stories so they can understand the effects of street harassment.
  3. Teachers talking to their students. Katie has had success asking her male students if that’s how they’d like their sister or mother treated.
  4. Men who get why it’s not okay talking to young men and boys.

 

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Filed Under: national study, race, SSH programs, street harassment Tagged With: Asian American, focus group, national study

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