new york times Archives | Stop Street Harassment

Harassment of women business travelers

March 1, 2011 By HKearl

If you’re a woman who has traveled alone, especially for business, you’ve probably thought a lot about how to stay safe and unharassed.

Joe Sharkey at the New York Times devoted his weekly business travel column today to harassment while traveling and how women deal with it. I’m very grateful. It’s a well written article (full disclosure, I’m quoted in it) and it brings this important women’s issue and important business issue to the attention of the general public.

His article made me remember how often this topic came up when I was researching public harassment for my book. At a very basic level, I read many stories about how harassment and feelings of unsafety impacted women’s eating habits. Women shared stories about going to a restaurant alone and having to deal with men harassing and propositioning them (even men with wedding rings). Because of those experiences, going forward, crackers and candy in a vending machine or expensive room service became necessary alternatives for dinner.

Crazy, right? And that’s on the lesser end of the spectrum of changes many women make while traveling.

Last April, I went on my first business trip. For part of the trip, I was safe and secure, staying with an aunt and cousin who lived near where I gave a talk. But during the second half of the trip, I was in an area I’d never been, staying alone in a hotel. I went running soon after I arrived at my hotel and a scary harassment experience I faced led me to write one of my first op-eds. It also made me feel really unsafe as a woman traveling alone, especially as my hotel room was on the first floor, less than a mile from where the man harassed me.

I had to talk myself into not being frightened. I had to convince myself that the statistics for being attacked were in my favor – it was more likely I’d get hurt in a car crash than that a man would break into my room and attack me. And the self pep-talk worked. Mostly.

I travel a lot now to give talks about street harassment and I continue to make myself be brave. To go out running alone. To explore the city if I have time in my schedule. To not eat all of my meals from a vending machine. I remind myself that I have every right to be in public and I have every right to travel alone without restrictions.

Are you a woman who has traveled alone for work? Do you have any strategies for feeling safe?

It’s not the same

November 16, 2009 By HKearl

Loud cell phone talkers are annoying and exhibit bad manners. The same is true for men who harass women on the streets. But, oh yeah, the men also are obnoxious, insulting, demeaning, infuriating, scary, and sometimes dangerous!

In an article about rudeness in public, the New York Times highlights ways some people confront those who have loud cell phone conversations in public or play their ipod way too loud. Then near the end of the article, the author mentions how one woman posts people’s cell phone conversations she overhears on her blog and that HollaBackNYC is a blog where women can submit photos of street harassers.* Whaatt?!

I hate that a big newspaper like the New York Times can characterize groping, stalking and sexually explicit comments as “bad etiquette” comparable to loud cell phone talkers in almost the same sentence. It’s a hell of a lot more than that!!

It’s predatory, bullying behavior that also oozes of male entitlement. (Men, it is not your right to talk to or try to get the attention of a woman in public just because you see her.) It contributes to women’ s continued inequality and leads most women to feel less safe and welcome in public than most men.

I hope that one day the NewYork Times will publish substantial articles about the problem of street harassment instead of articles like this one, in which it is mentioned offhand and out of context. And when I say substantial, I mean articles that don’ t just go: man masturbates on subway, woman takes photo and reports him, man is arrested. I mean stories that get at some of the complexities of street harassment and the very serious impact it has on the lives of so many girls and women.

*(I also think the author’s comparison of loud cell phone talkers to people who illegally park in handicap spots is off base. That is a fine-able offense; talking on a cell phone is not. Also, street harassment negatively impacts women and is perpetrated by men, illegal parking negatively impacts persons with disabilites and is perpetrated by able-bodied persons. As far as I know, loud cell phone talkers are not found primarily in any one demographic and they don’t impact only people in one demographic.)

More Women-Only Cars in India

September 16, 2009 By HKearl

The NYTimes reports that in India, gender-based street harassment (or eve teasing) is so bad that the government has instituted a pilot program for eight new commuter trains exclusively for female passengers in India’s four largest cities: New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Calcutta. They are called “Ladies Specials” and offer women relief from harassing men. (view a slideshow from NYTimes)

Gender-based harassment of women on public transportation is widespread. There are many countries that have instituted women-only subway or train cars, buses, or taxi cab services because so many girls and women are groped and harassed by men.

For example, some cities in Thailand, Mexico, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, and UAE have women-only buses.

Japan, Brazil, Egypt, Iran, Mexico, and South Korea are examples of countries with women-only subway cars in their major cities.

In some places in England, Russia, Australia, Lebanon, Iran, India, and the UAE, there are women-only taxi cabs with women drivers.

In the U.S., transit systems in NYC, Boston and Chicago are all struggling to deal with high rates of harassment. Both NYC and Boston have anti-harassment PSAs on some of their subway cars.

Women-only cars are only a band aid fix that does not fix the overall problem of men harassing women. Men will still harass them on the platform, in mixed car trains, on streets, in parks, etc. Separate cars can make women who can’t access women-only cars seem like fair game for harassing men. In Tokyo, which has women-only subway cars, there were 2,000 groping cases reported last year, 30% were of teenage girls. The crime is underreported, so imagine how much higher the figure may be. Again, Tokyo HAS women-only cars. This is not a solution.

Men must be taught to respect women and not see them as available for comment, touching, following, and assault when they are in public simply because they are female. Check out what Blank Noise is doing to address eve teasing in India (they aren’t advocating for separate train cars for women and men).

Attacked While Jogging

January 6, 2009 By HKearl

The New York Times reports that a woman was jogging in a park in NYC on Sunday when a man slashed her forehead with a knife and then walked away. It sounds like she went into shock and then was taken to the hospital. No one saw the attack happen and the assailant is still at large.

What a horrific experience! And all it takes is one attack like that to scare other women from going to that park or going running alone, especially since he hasn’t been caught yet. To naysayers, street harassment can be very insidious and does impact women – directly and indirectly – in the choices they make.

Also worth noting, women are much more likely to be attacked or hurt by someone they know (not true for men), but, random acts of violence against women by strangers in public like this obviously happen. The randomness does a great job of scaring women into trying to avoid places they think they will be more vulnerable (when in actuality, many of them are safer on the street than in their own home).

Will women who read this story be advised by concerned friends & family to not run alone or decide themselves not to go running alone? Probably. Will any men be advised or feel the need not to go running alone because of this story? Probably not, yet statistically, they’re more at risk of stranger attacks than women. Funny, huh?

Anyway, I hope the woman who was attacked will be okay and that the man will not attack anyone else!