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#MeToo 2024 Study Released Today

September 16, 2024 By HKearl

#MeToo 2024 Research Report

Thank you, SSH community who helped fund a 2024 national study on sexual harassment and assault — it came out TODAY!

Roughly 1 in 4 U.S. adults (26%), or more than 68 million people, experienced sexual harassment or assault in the past year alone, with significantly higher rates for women (32%) compared to men (15%).

This #MeToo 2024 Report builds on our 2018 and 2019 surveys. This national study was led by the Newcomb Institute at Tulane University and was supported by Stop Street Harassment, Valor and Raliance. The survey was conducted by NORC in spring 2024, of more than 3,300 U.S. adults over age 18.

READ: Full Report | Executive Summary | Press Release | Survey Questions 

The findings show that despite heightened awareness and prevention efforts from the #MeToo movement that gained national attention in 2017, most women (82%) and nearly half of all men (42%) have experienced sexual harassment or assault in their lifetime.

These abuses often occur as sexual harassment in public spaces, 73% for women and 24% for men.

Over half of women (56%) experience sexual harassment or assault by age 18. Alarmingly, one in five women (20%) first experience sexual harassment or assault before the age of 13 — and most often in the form of sexual harassment in public spaces without intervention.

Notably, it has been 10 years since our 2014 national survey on street harassment, which showed that 65% of women and 25% of men had faced sexual harassment or assault in public spaces. Thus, in 10 years, the rate for women has increased — 65% to 73%, while it has stayed around the same for men — 25% to 24%.

More work is needed to work to stop sexual harassment and abuse, especially in public spaces and especially by men toward girls.

This is unacceptable! We must continue to speak out and work to make public spaces safe for everyone.

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Filed Under: national study, nonprofit, Resources, street harassment Tagged With: metoo, research, sexual harassment, street harassment, study

International Anti-Street Harassment Week 2021 Begins

April 11, 2021 By HKearl

This year is another stressful, scary and unusual one as COVID-19 cases rise in many regions of the world. But speaking out about street harassment during International Anti-Street Harassment Week (April 11-17) continues to be important because it is still happening and affecting millions of lives.

So far, I’ve heard from groups in nearly 20 countries who are or will be commemorating the week by posting information online, collecting stories, holding rallies, hosting tweet chats and zoom trainings and discussions, chalking and demonstrating — and it’s so inspiring to see what’s happened so far! View photos from our album.

Media coverage for the week has already begun to and includes three articles in three countries: Columbia News Service (US), de Gelderlander (Netherlands) and Sunday Midday (India). Also, L’Oreal Paris shared their survey results and posted a video of singer Celine Dione talking about the issue on their IG account!

While most events today took place online (see information about them here), such as a tweet chat hosted by Safecity and an Instagram Live Q&A by Our Streets Now, it was exciting and impressive to see three offline rallies take place in the Netherlands (with masks and social distancing) and in Nashville, TN (USA). See more photos.

Netherlands!
Nashville, TN!

Thank you so much to everyone who has joined or plans to join this week! And if you need some ideas for what to do, here you go!

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Filed Under: anti-street harassment week, street harassment Tagged With: rally, street harassment

We All Want to Make It Home Safely

March 12, 2021 By HKearl

This week, 33-year-old marketing executive Sarah Everard’s remains were found in the UK after she went missing last week. She was attacked and murdered while traveling home from a friend’s house. A police officer was arrested on suspicion of her murder.

Her story is tragic — and it’s the worst-case scenario that makes so much street harassment unnerving. We wonder: which harassers might escalate their behavior and strike us, follow us, grab us, assault us and even kill us?

Her story also confirms that police officers may NOT be people we can turn to for help and protection… instead they may ignore, blame, harass, assault or even kill us.

Since Sarah went missing, thousands of women have shared their own stories of assault and street harassment by men. A new representative study in the UK released this week backs up their stories – 97% of young women have faced sexual harassment and 80% of all women have experienced street harassment.

Of course, street harassment is a global problem, a global crisis, and these figures and stories in the UK are just the latest documentation of it.

During our collective year of global health pandemic, the issue of street harassment has often become a lower priority, a lesser problem to address, but Sarah’s story shows that street harassment is also deadly. The study shows that street harassment is also a far-reaching crisis.

Share Your COVID Street Harassment Stories
Ahead of International Anti-Street Harassment Week (April 11-17), we invite you to share your experiences and stories with street harassment across the pandemic – and/or submit artwork to stopstreetharassment@gmail.com.
We’ll share them across the week to help raise awareness that this is STILL a critical issue that we must address, we must work to stop.

And we must hold men — yes, all men — accountable for the culture they directly or indirectly contribute to and benefit from that turns women into prey who cannot safely walk home.

Anti-Street Harassment Week Partners & Activities
Thank you to Safecity/Red Dot Foundation, Catcalls of NYC, Hollaback! and L’Oreal Paris as well as other partners for their help this year’s Week of Action!!

As a reminder, we imagine much of the world will still be practicing social distancing next month, and so we encourage you to engage in online action (and use the hashtag #StopStreetHarassment) or, if it’s safe to do so, take small offline actions, like go with a friend or two to chalk on sidewalks or post flyers in your community. 

If you have ideas already, you can let us know what you’ll do by filling out this form, and you can let us know if you’d like to be listed on the website as a participating co-sponsor, stopstreetharassment@gmail.com.


March 27 Event
Catcalls of NYC turns 5 years old this month and we’ll be hosting their anniversary event on our Facebook Page on March 27. More details to come!

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Filed Under: anti-street harassment week, COVID19, News stories, police harassment, street harassment Tagged With: police, research, sarah everard, share stories, street harassment

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
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Filed Under: 16 days, Resources, street harassment Tagged With: 16 days, girls, research, street harassment

DC’s New Law Against Street Harassment

August 4, 2018 By HKearl

April 2018 rally in support of SHPA led by Collective Action for Safe Spaces in DC

The Council of the District of Columbia recently passed the Street Harassment Prevention Act of 2018 (SHPA), the first legislation of its kind in the United States. It is one of more than 20 laws addressing street harassment to pass globally since 2012, and laws are under consideration in a dozen more places.

The SHPA is groundbreaking in creating the first legal definition of street harassment in the United States, calling it “disrespectful, offensive or threatening statements, gestures or other conduct directed at an individual in a high-risk area without the individual’s consent and based on the individual’s actual or perceived … protected trait identified in the [DC] Human Rights Act of 1977.” It also uniquely focuses on prevention through education instead of criminalization.

Specifically, the SHPA establishes an advisory committee on street harassment that will propose model policies and training materials to be implemented in the District; require the Office of Human Rights (OHR) to conduct the first citywide survey on street harassment; and require OHR to conduct a public information campaign about street harassment. Further, grant money will be provided for street harassment awareness programs.

The advocacy organization Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS), which uses community-based solutions through an intersectional lens to address street harassment, was instrumental in the passage of SHPA. Deputy director Chantal Coudoux noted that one of its strengths is that is was “developed and advocated for by directly impacted community members and organizations led by survivors of harassment and assault” through speak-outs and in-person and online story-sharing.

Read how SHPA compares to laws elsewhere in this article I wrote for Women’s Media Center.

DC Councilmember Nadeau

DC Councilmember Brianne Nadeau introduced the SHPA and did an interview for me about it.

HK: Why did you feel it was important to see the Street Harassment Prevention Act pass?

BN: I pushed for the first-ever Council roundtable hearing on street harassment, and introduced this bill because I experienced this kind of harassment on a regular basis, and so did many of the women I spoke to. At the hearing, Councilmembers heard heartbreaking stories that really demonstrated how pervasive street harassment is for many of our vulnerable populations. The District is a place where everyone should feel welcome, but the unfortunate truth is that street harassment is a shared experience facing many of our vulnerable populations.

 

HK: What do you think has led Washington, D.C. to be a leader in the USA on addressing street harassment?

BN: I think it took women being in power and feeling like their concerns would be taken seriously, as well as strong support from organizations in the community. It’s not an issue that’s unique to Washington, but there was a political will to deal with the issue, and strong community based organizations working on this issue like Collective Action for Safe Spaces who were instrumental in helping craft this bill.

Our understanding is that this is the first time any US state or city has legally defined street harassment. There are existing laws that are sometimes applied when street harassment is taking place, but they’re typically laws that are about other kinds of assault or harassment. Our understanding is that this is the first time a US state or city has legally defined street harassment, the first citywide data collection on the issue in the US and the first law to address the issue without criminalization. Again, our understanding is that most other countries have tried to implement fines for street harassment so this is the first to address street harassment without criminalization. Here is an article that has some good information: Citylab

 

HK: What do you hope DC will look like in 5 years because of the law?

BN: We wrote this bill while being sensitive to the fact that young people, members of the LGBTQ community, people from communities of color, people experiencing homelessness, and people from low-income communities experience more frequent and severe harassment. The law is focused on education and culture change because any solution to the problem shouldn’t be an excuse to disproportionately target those same communities through criminalization.

The legislation establishes an advisory committee which will develop policies, guidelines and procedures to educate District employees to identify and address street harassment; evaluate and make recommendations regarding reporting street harassment; and conduct a survey to collect data so that we have a better understanding on the pervasiveness of street harassment. Grant money will be provided for street harassment awareness programs. The bill targets areas where harassment is more common such as public transportation, cabs and ride-sharing services, bars, restaurants, night clubs, schools, colleges, sidewalks, parks and other public spaces.

This law sends a strong message that harassing one another on the street is not something that Washingtonians will stand for. In five years, I hope street harassment is much less common than it is today. I want people who have experienced harassment to feel safer on our streets and I want all residents to understand what street harassment is, to understand how to call it out, and how to intervene. In five years, I hope our culture shifts and it’s viewed as an unacceptable public behavior, as it should be.

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Filed Under: street harassment Tagged With: CASS, DC act, DC city council, laws, legislation, street harassment

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From the Blog

  • #MeToo 2024 Study Released Today
  • Join International Anti-Street Harassment Week 2022
  • Giving Tuesday – Fund the Hotline
  • Thank You – International Anti-Street Harassment Week 2021
  • Share Your Story – Safecity and Catcalls Collaboration

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