Since the day I told my dad that the topic of my master’s thesis would be gender-based street harassment, he has been incredibly supportive of my work. He read and gave feedback on numerous versions of my thesis. Then he and my mom encouraged me to write a book. When I got sidetracked at times on other street harassment projects, he kept pushing me to focus on the goal of getting a book published. When I got a book contract and wrote the book, my dad read numerous drafts of chapters and gave feedback as I wrote and revised. In the days leading up to my due date, he hand wrote edits on nearly every single page of my manuscript, then scanned and emailed them back to me. The morning my manuscript was due, he was still editing, scanning, and sending me pages to help make it as strong as possible. He continues to offer encouragement as I blog and write articles about street harassment. In fact, earlier this evening, I sent out the draft of a new article to a few people for feedback. My dad was the first one to respond.

I am incredibly lucky to have two parents who encourage me, push me, and are proud of me. Given the subject matter of the work I do, I feel particularly lucky to have such a great male ally in my dad – many men do not care or understand why street harassment upsets women, but he gets it and wants to see the problem end.

So thanks, dad, for everything you’ve done and continue to do to support my street harassment work. Happy Father’s Day!