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There will be no equality as long as women are harassed in public places

August 26, 2010 By HKearl

On Women’s Equality Day, Americans celebrate the rights women have gained. Since the passage of the 19th amendment 90 years ago, women can vote, attend any institution of higher education, enter every job field, participate in all sports, own property, control when and if to have children, and run for president. I am grateful for these rights. I also feel a responsibility to help women gain additional basic rights as we strive for full equality.

Earlier this month I received a disturbing story for my blog Stop Street Harassment. A female employee said that male customers regularly sexually harass her at a retail store in Vicksburg, Mississippi. When men began following her to her car, she felt so unsafe she bought a taser. Her manager refused to act so she plans to quit her job to move near her family.

In another recent story submitted to my blog, a woman from Chicago, Illinois, shared how a group of young men on the sidewalk surrounded her as she walked to the subway. They made sexually explicit comments, hissed in her ear, and one groped her buttock. She says these kinds of encounters impact her clothing choices, commuting routes, and the time of day she leaves her home.  She wrote, “I feel as though the right to walk freely in public spaces is one I’ve been denied.”

Until women don’t have to move, change jobs, or plan their travel routes, as the Vicksburg and Chicago women and countless others have had to do, because of male harassment and the threat of male assault, women will never achieve full equality. Public places will never be safe and welcoming for women as long as men make sexual and sexist comments, whistle, leer, stalk, masturbate at, and grope them there.

Formal and informal studies show that no matter their age, sexual orientation, race, class, dis/ability, or body type, most women experience this kind of harassment, termed street harassment. This includes 100 percent of women in a 1995 Indianapolis study, 100 percent of women in a 2000 California Bay Area study, and 99 percent of women in an informal online survey I conducted in 2008.

In lieu of laws or societal concern about their plight, women practice scores of strategies at different times to avoid harassment and assault. From my informal survey of 811 women I found that on at least a monthly basis, 37 percent consciously try to wear clothes they think will attract less attention, 46 percent avoid being out at night, and 49 percent change routes on at least a monthly basis. Almost all women practiced these and other strategies at least a few times. Most alarming, just like the woman in Vicksburg, 19 percent have moved neighborhoods because of harassers, and nine percent have changed jobs because of harassers near their workplace or along their commute.

Disappointingly, aside from a few local governments, activist groups, and feminists, American leaders and citizens are doing nothing about this widespread problem. Unlike public harassment motivated by racism or homophobia, harassment motivated by sexism is treated as a joke, a compliment, or a trivial annoyance and women may be blamed for “causing” it. Songs like Katy Perry’s “Starstrukk,” Allstate insurance’s woman jogger mayhem commercial, and Facebook groups like “Grab An Ass Day” reflect these attitudes. This must change if we want gender equality.

I suggest American government leaders and activists learn from other countries’ recent efforts to end street harassment and take their own action. In Cairo, Egypt, Parliament is considering an anti-sexual harassment law that would include public spaces. In Delhi, India, the government and NGOs are conducting studies of different areas of the city to find out what makes women feel unsafe so they can address those issues. This summer local activists and the government of Wales sponsored “One Step Too Far,” a television ad about sexual harassment in public and at work aimed at men that aired during the World Cup.

Can you imagine the positive impact of these or similar initiatives if they were implemented in the United States? The very act of national leaders acknowledging street harassment to be a problem would lead to crucial change.

The responsibility for ending street harassment also lies with each of us. At an individual level, we can all talk and learn about street harassment because problems that are ignored stay problems. We can stand up for women being harassed and report harassers, teach boys to respect women, and empower girls to know how to deal with harassers. And crucially, men who harass women need to stop.

I hope that before another 90 years pass all women can safely enter, use, and enjoy public spaces. Only then can we hope to achieve gender equality. On Women’s Equality Day, let’s all commit to do our part.

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Filed Under: street harassment Tagged With: 90th anniversary 19th amendment, equal rights, gender inequality, one step too far, street harassment, women's equality day

Three organizations that care about women’s safety in public

June 16, 2010 By HKearl

In light of my recent post about if “the left” cares that women aren’t safe in public, which is rather a downer piece, I want to do an upper piece and point out three organizations that do care. I applaud them for taking this issue seriously.

1. United Nations: Through UNIFEM the UN has a comprehensive Safe Cities project. The initiative started in Peru and Argentina and has spread to other countries, such as India.

“Harassment and abuse of women and girls in public spaces is a rampant yet largely neglected issue. This module provides guidance on how to create safe cities and communities for women and girls to live a life free of violence drawing on the knowledge of experts and on existing programmes that work.  This advance version, walks you through essential programming elements, giving step-by-step guidance for implementation with illustrative case studies and links to tools and other resources.”

Printed out, it’s over 200 pages. I’m in the midst of reading through it and I’m impressed by its scope and am SO glad that an organization with the caliber of the UN is addressing this issue.

2. Government of Wales: Recently they launched a “One Step Too Far” Campaign that illustrates the slippery slope between harmless interactions and harassment in public places.

“The campaign asks individuals to re-assess the impacts of their own behaviour and that of their peers. The absolute cut-off between harmless and abusive is subject to debate, and depends on the context and on the individuals concerned. One thing is not open for debate however, and that is that any behaviour that degrades, humiliates or frightens a woman is unacceptable.

Gender discrimination stems from a man’s perceived sense of entitlement. It’s this attitude that gives him the green light to direct derogatory and unfair behaviour towards women. By accepting this behaviour- either as a woman or a man- we propagate this attitude in society as a whole.

If it’s ok to express these attitudes, then it’s ok to express these behaviours, right? And if it’s ok to express these behaviours, then where’s the harm in pushing it a bit further, right? Sexism falls within a continuum of harm, a slippery slope of ever-worsening behaviours that moves women further and further from where they’re entitled to be.

Physical violence towards women, sometimes resulting in death, is where that slippery slope ends. Which is why we must all challenge these attitudes.”

The hidden camera video is excellent and they list numerous resources. There’s also a comments section though I’d pass on it unless you love reading comments from men who think it’s perfectly fine to harass women in public who dress “a certain way.”

3. International Center for Research on Women: They are running an excellent initiative in India focused on changing boys’ and men’s attitudes about masculinity and gender issues, including addressing the rampant problem of street harassment, or eve teasing, there. One component of the initiative is called “Parivartan.” Through it, cricket coaches and role models on community cricket teams attend workshops on gender issues and then, because the others on the team look up to them, expose large groups of boys to healthy definitions of manhood and respect for women. This excerpt explains the impact on one of the participants:

Rajesh Jadhav via ICRW website

“…As is custom, Rajesh explains that women stood in a compartment [of the train] relegated for them. But the train was packed on this day, so some women were in the general area, alongside men. That’s when Rajesh saw a few men deliberately brush up against women. His eyes caught the pained looks on women’s faces.

Another time – actually, many other times – Rajesh says he was with friends when they harassed girls with lewd comments. He says he’s seen friends do so if they thought a girl was too tall. If they thought her skin was too dark. If she was with her boyfriend, they’d comment about what she did with him sexually.

In India, such behavior by Rajesh’s friends is called “eve teasing.” It runs the gamut, from making suggestive remarks to groping women, and is relatively common in public settings.

“I always used to feel … that we look at women and girls from a narrow perspective, and we make fun of their existence,” says Rajesh, who is pursing a bachelor’s degree in commerce at a nearby college – a rare opportunity in his community. “I’ve seen girls break down and cry and I couldn’t do anything.”

Until now.

These days, Rajesh has the confidence to speak out against mistreating women and girls. Sometimes, he even intervenes to stop it. He admits to being pressured to harass girls, too – and has in the past – but no more. “I know now that is harming someone’s dignity.”As a participant in ICRW’s Parivartan program, Rajesh has become an ambassador of sorts, preaching to his peers that women shouldn’t be controlled, and that men need to learn how to handle problems without using violence.”

So wonderful. Can we please get a similar program in the US?! Additionally, check out ICRW’s publication What Men Have to Do With It.

“Most policies that strive for equality still focus exclusively on empowering women and neglect the role that men can play in the effort. This report summarizes how policies of seven countries (Brazil, Chile, India, Mexico, South Africa, Norway and Tanzania) involve men in gender equality goals. The study also examines whether the policies address social norms that reinforce traditional perceptions of what it means to be a man. The authors analyze advances, challenges and remaining gaps in a range of policy arenas”

I am so grateful for the programs of these organizations and hope that other big groups will follow suit and address the fact that nearly all women and girls are unsafe and unwelcome in public spaces at least sometimes because of some boys and men. That won’t change until we all do our part to make sure it changes.

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Filed Under: street harassment Tagged With: eve teasing, International Center for Research on Women, one step too far, Parivartan, sexual harassment, street harassment, UNIFEM. United Nations, Wales

Weekly Round Up: June 13, 2010

June 13, 2010 By HKearl

Weekly Round Up is back by popular demand.

Story Submissions Recap:

I accept street harassment submissions from anywhere in the world. Share your story!

  • Stop Street Harassment Blog: A woman in New Jersey is harassed in person and through her phone, a woman living in Belize shares how common street harassment occurs there, awoman in Salem, Massachusetts, observes high school boys harassing a high school girl and decides to report them, a woman in Gent, Belgium, says she gets sick with fear when men harass her, a woman in Washington, DC. tells a metro harasser to please leave her alone, a woman in Hendersonville, TN, recalls how many men threw objects from their cars at her and other woman walking down the street, and a woman in Toronto is stalked by a man for 45 minutes as she shops.
  • Hollaback Chicago: 1 new story this week
  • Hollaback DC!: 12 new stories this week
  • Hollaback London: 4 new stories this week
  • Hollaback NYC: 3 new stories this week, plus Justine’s video “Why I Hollaback”
  • Hollaback Toronto: 1 new story this week
  • Other: A woman in Nepal writes about street harassment on Booksie, there’s a Livejournal entry called “Street Harassment and Redneck Chivalry,” and anti-street harassment song! By “eating dictionaries”

In the News:

  • June 13 is “Eve Teasing Protection Day“
  • In Central Jakarta, India, there are now sex segregated bus lines because of harassment
  • Crime Prevention 101 online radio show about street harassment (listen to it here)
  • “Black Women X The Streets X Harassment” on Racialicious
  • AOL Lemondrop article “How to Deal with Cat-Callers, Leer-ers, and Other Street Harassers“
  • Three men raped a homeless woman who was waiting for a bus in NYC
  • A Seattle, Washington, cis man was charged with a hate crime following the assault of a transwoman
  • Hey Baby video game is covered by: NY Times, NPR, Ms Magazine Blog, Feministe, and WPIX (w/video)

Announcements:

  • Welcome Hollaback Hong Kong and Hollaback London!
  • Three things you can do to help HollaBack and it programs

Resource of the Week:

The Welsh Government’s excellent video “One Step Too Far” and the companion website.

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Filed Under: Advice, hollaback, News stories, Stories, street harassment, weekly round up Tagged With: hey baby, hollaback, one step too far, Stories, street harassment

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From the Blog

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  • Thank You – International Anti-Street Harassment Week 2021
  • Share Your Story – Safecity and Catcalls Collaboration

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