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USA: Calling out “Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing”

January 28, 2018 By Correspondent

Connie DiSanto, New Hampshire, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

Photo Credit: Lisa Dittman

Take Back the Night (TBTN) events have been held worldwide since the 1970s as a way for women to “take back” their right to walk safely at night, within their own communities. Earlier event participants were exclusively women but today, many include men as allies and survivors. Here at the University of New Hampshire, TBTN events date back to the 1990s and our program, the Sexual Harassment & Rape Prevention (SHARPP) has, in various forms, sponsored and participated in TBTN events. This past fall was no exception.

Led by a handful of dedicated SHARPP peer advocates, some of whom are affiliated with sororities and fraternities on campus, a couple hundred students and a few staff members gathered to say that all forms of sexual violence and harassment and rape culture do not have a place on our campus. The group marched in solidarity in the dark and cold with hand-made signs with messages of strength and support for a safer campus. And at the end, the vigil brought forth brave survivors who spoke to the group.

We were proud of the student turnout and even happier that several fraternities had come out in support. However, our celebration of a successful event was cut short when a female student reached out and reported to our office that a group of male students from a particular fraternity was in fact, the opposite of what they presented themselves to be. Not in support. Not allies. Not true to the spirit of the event and all it stands for. Despite an initial plea from our student event leader who specifically asked the group to be respectful while participating in this event, these men mocked the true participants’ chants by shouting, “Assault is hot, consent is not” and engaged in sexually harassing comments to female students.

Reports were made about the incident to the Greek Life administration, the Dean of Students, and the Title IX office, resulting in disciplinary actions by Greek Life. University disciplinary action has not been communicated to our office to date. The students that came forward to report what had happened did everything they could in the moment. They confronted the individuals, pointing out that their behavior was unacceptable. It even prompted a male student among them to say, “You might want to watch what you say.” We applaud the students for coming forward to report the behavior at this event, knowing that they might be putting themselves in a vulnerable situation. Campuses need safe spaces for students to come forward and they need staff to support them and speak on their behalf.

As we de-briefed as a staff, we recognized this incident was not unique in itself since we’ve experienced similar behaviors among students through the years, but in this case, the brazen action taken by those students who were presenting themselves as “participants” was more than troubling. In a time when sexual violence and harassment on campus, and in all areas of society, is finally able to ‘come out of the dark’ and be discussed for what it is, an epidemic, we have to continue call out those individuals who feel they can walk among us, and make us feel unsafe and threatened.

#Metoo and The Silence Breakers have done more than reveal we are not alone as those impacted by sexual violence and harassment. It has given many people a voice and an opportunity to call out those individuals who assault and harass and make sure they know we see them for what they are. And as the new #TimesUp movement’s mission states: “No more silence. No more waiting. No more tolerance for discrimination, harassment or abuse.” The call for action is now.

Connie is the Marketing Communications Specialist for the Sexual Harassment & Rape Prevention Program (SHARPP) at the University of New Hampshire. She can be reached at connie.disanto@unh.edu.

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Filed Under: correspondents Tagged With: activism, campus, new hampshire, take back the night, university

Safety First: Street Harassment and Women’s Educational Choices in India

April 6, 2017 By Contributor

Guest Post for International Anti-Street Harassment Week

By Girija Borker

Why do women in India choose to attend lower ranked colleges?

Is it because women have lower high school test scores? No.

Is it because of street harassment? YES.

Women studying in Delhi University (DU), one of the top universities in India, choose lower ranked colleges than men with the same high school test scores. This is despite the fact that women score higher on national high school exams than men. And this is true even for the smartest and the most ambitious women. My research aims to understand why women are making these choices and whether it is because women trade-off quality of education for safety from harassment.

DU is composed of 77 colleges and the colleges are spread across Delhi. The colleges vary in quality, with each college having its own campus, staff and classes. Undergraduate admissions in DU are centralized and primarily based on students’ high school test scores. I surveyed over 4,000 students at DU to collect information on students’ daily travel route, travel mode, their high school scores and exposure to street harassment. At DU, most students live with their parents and travel to college every day, predominantly by public transport. In my sample, over 70% of students live at home and of these around 80% use public transport to travel to college every day. Most women I surveyed have experienced some form of street harassment – 63% of women have experienced unwanted staring, 50% have received inappropriate comments, 27% have been touched inappropriately and 25% have been followed.

To determine how the risk of harassment during travel affects college choice, I combine safety data with information on students’ chosen travel route and alternative travel routes available. Safety data comes from SafetiPin, a map-based mobile application that allows users to characterize the safety of an area. Information on harassment by travel mode comes from Safecity, a mobile application that lets women share their stories of harassment in urban public spaces. I used Google Maps to map the route options available to each student for their travel to college every day.

Harassment risk and students’ chosen travel routes to a college in Delhi University.
My analysis indicates that avoidance behavior in response to street harassment can largely explain women’s choices. I found that women are willing to attend a college that is 6 ranks lower for a route that is 1 standard deviation safer. This means that if a woman must choose to travel daily to the number 1 ranked college but face a high probability of harassment, or commute to the 6th ranked college that incurs on average 1 standard deviation less of harassment, she will choose the 6th ranked college. Compared to men, women are willing to give up 4 more ranks for an additional standard deviation of safety. Even among individuals who chose the best college in their set of available choices, women spend Rs. 15,500 ($250) more than men in annual travel costs to take safer, but more expensive travel routes to college. This amount is equivalent to 6% of the average per capita annual income in Delhi.

This is the first study to assess the effects of street harassment on women’s college choice. The study highlights the degree to which the threat of street harassment holds back promising young women, even at a prestigious university in a modern city. The findings speak to the long-term consequences of everyday harassment – perpetuating gender inequality in education. Policy makers must realize that affirmative action for women is not enough unless we transform public spaces into enabling environments that are accessible to all.

Girija is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Economics at Brown University. She works primarily in the areas of gender economics, economics of education, and development economics. Girija grew up in Delhi and did her undergraduate studies from St. Stephen’s College in Delhi University.
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Filed Under: anti-street harassment week, Resources Tagged With: Brown University, choice, college, Delhi University, higher education, Hyderabad India, India, public transportation, SafetiPin, university

Canada: Promoting Right to Space on University Campuses

December 11, 2016 By Correspondent

An interview with Arianne Kent and Dina Al Shawwa from Women in Cities International’s Right to Campus Campaign

Alexandra Jurecko, Montreal, Canada, SSH Blog Correspondent

Right to Campus Team, Arianne and Dina
Right to Campus Team: Arianne and Dina

Arianne Kent and Dina Al Shawwa met this summer during their research internship at Women in Cities International. In June, they started work on their own project, Right to Campus, which brings WICI’s goals and tactics to McGill University in Montreal. Both Dina and Arianne are students at the university, with Dina being in her fifth year of Civil Engineering and Women’s Studies, and Arianne in her third year of studying Sociology and Women Studies.

“The idea is to take what Women in Cities International does and bring it onto campus,” says Arianne. “More broadly,” adds Dina, “we’re implementing the concepts of the larger Right to the City movement”. “What we want to do is to create more inclusive spaces on campus,” Arianne goes on, “Campus space should be equitable and safe for everyone. No one should have to bend and mold and make themselves uncomfortable to fit in the McGill space.”

Their first effort on campus was to incorporate the Right to Campus principles into the training for the university’s orientation week. “I was an orientation leader two years ago,” explains Arianne, “and I saw a lot of problems with this. As orientation leaders we’re kind of on the front line, we’re the first people who meet all these incoming students and we have a huge responsibility of conveying what’s acceptable behaviour as a McGill student. That covers everything from consent, respect, anti-discrimination, safety, all these complicated concepts that you’re trying to relay to these incoming students and we weren’t equipped enough to do so from our training.”

In preparation for the event, Dina and Arianne worked alongside the orientation development coordinator: “We were trying to reframe the entire training in terms of space,” says Dina. “We were working within the system to improve the training itself. We thought if we reframe it in terms of space, we can explain that excluding someone from a group is taking away their right to space within that group.” According to Arianne and Dina, it is crucial to change the space itself to be accommodating for everyone rather than asking people to fit in. “The space needs to be comfortable for everyone in order for people to even want the right to space,” they explain.

rtc_2
McGill Community Engagement Day and the safety audit Arianne and Dina organized with the help of volunteers.

For orientation week, they prepared a Frosh zine and guidelines that could be applied to different scenarios, as well as a summary of campus and Montreal resources. During Community Engagement Day in September, the team lead a series of safety audits to explore issues of security and use of space on campus. “We recruited volunteers and walked them through the process of a safety audit which involves looking at different features of the social environment and we got their feedback and opinions,” remembers Arianne. “McGill security does their own official safety audits checking whether lighting is up to par and whether everything is technically safe, but we thought it would be interesting for students to do it as well since they are the ones who primarily use the space. And, student opinions might differ vastly from those of adults and security personnel.”

The group has since been invited to join McGill campus security on their annual safety walks and they are further planning on writing up a report covering the findings from their student-led safety audits: “We’re talking to them now about perhaps using our checklist for safety audits, which is based on the principles of design for safety, on their walks.”

Inter-University Parking Day in Montreal. McGill students are explaining why having equal right to space is important to them.
Inter-University Parking Day in Montreal. McGill students explain why having equal right to space is important to them.

Right to Campus’ first goal is to get students involved and talking. “We want to make campus safety everyone’s responsibility and not only women’s responsibility,” stresses Arianne. “Too often the message is that it’s women’s job to make sure they are safe, but men pay an equal part in this.” Arianne and Dina hope that through starting the conversation and by engaging people through their on-campus events, they will establish their ideas for campus safety and right to space among their fellow students: “We think that’s where tangible things grow from.”

These themes occupy Dina and Arianne also in their own academic research. As a Civil Engineering student, Dina wants to explore how to implement safety in people’s minds as well as in the physical environment. “I’m especially interested in the role of Engineers in the built environment that determines people’s perception of safety,” explains Dina. “I’m using safety audits to understand how people’s identity influences how they perceive safety on campus and at the same time I’m trying to understand how identity plays a role in that perception.”

rtc_5For their next project, the Right to Campus team is planning an art show in spring next year. “We want to ask people what right to space means to them. It can be any personal interpretation of space”, says Dina, “how they feel in space, how they navigate that space.” In the long run, Dina and Arianna are hoping to expand Right to Campus from McGill University and implement the campaign on university campuses worldwide: “We want to take the Right to Campus toolkit to other universities in Montreal, Canada and across the world and make it a resource for students everywhere.”

Alexandra is a freelance writer and recent graduate of Heidelberg University in Germany, where she earned a BA in South Asian Studies and English Literature. Having moved across the pond to live and work in Montreal, she now focuses on refreshing her French skills while volunteering her time to various community-outreach programs. You can follow her on twitter @alexjurecko.

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Filed Under: Activist Interviews, correspondents, Resources, street harassment Tagged With: students. campaign, university

United Kingdom: Freshers’ Week & Ending Sexual Harassment

September 19, 2016 By Correspondent

Ness Lyons for UNmuted Productions, UK, SSH Blog Correspondent

freshersToday marks the start of Freshers’ Week here in the UK. Over 400,000 undergraduates begin their first week of their first term of their first year at university. A longstanding institution, ‘Freshers’ Week’ – or ‘Welcome Week’, to give it it’s formal name –  is fun, flirty and fabulous. A lot of planning goes into making it so and this year, more so than any other, a lot of effort has also gone into ensuring students’ sexual safety.

“Freshers Week is a celebration so please treat it as such,” states the website for Sussex University’s Student Union.  “Respect other students, their bodies and their choices.  If you’re initiating sexual activity with someone, make sure they are as into it as you are, and that they have the freedom and the capacity to make that decision themselves.”  There’s an unfortunate irony in that statement; this is the same university that last month made a decision to continue to employ a lecturer convicted of assaulting his student girlfriend.

The website Unilad has also done a U-turn when it comes to its attitude towards female students. Four-and-a-half years ago, the site was temporarily suspended after making a joke that encouraged rape during Freshers’ Week.  This autumn however, it’s turned over a new leaf. Unilad has paired with the charity Drinkaware to raise awareness of ‘booze-fueled sexual harassment’; their research shows more than half of 18-24 year old female students have experienced sexual harassment on a night out. Unilad and Drinkaware are campaigning to get young people to ‘call out’ such incidents by using the hashtag #GropeFreeNights.

Drinkaware has also launched a non-virtual initiative to protect drunk students from harassment. The Drinkaware Crew are specially trained staff who will patrol student nightclubs and drinking venues in four areas of the UK, including South Wales. Their aim, according to South Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Alun Michael, is to “support customers who are vulnerable as a result of drinking too much and prevent them from potentially becoming victims of crime.” While this quote gives the impression the Drinkaware Crew are there to protect all students from all types of crime, including petty theft, the sober fact is they’re in South Wales because of a series of sexual assaults that took place in Cardiff city centre during the 2015 Freshers’ Week period.

Following the attacks, the police, councils, universities and student bodies in both Cardiff and Swansea formed a task force to prevent the same from happening again this year. Aside from the Drinkaware Crew, they have implemented a Safe Taxi Scheme and Student Safety bus to help students get home safely. While these are all good practical initiatives, further progress has been made by Cardiff University in launching a ‘No Joke’ anti-lad culture campaign in April of this year and NUS Wales running consent workshops. Instead of simply removing potential victims from harm of sexual harassment and assault, it is after all far better to remove the actual risk and that’s what we should see more of.

Ness Lyons is a playwright, filmmaker and spoken word poet. She runs UNmuted Productions, is a member of Soho Theatre Writers’ Lab and is currently developing a script with an award-winning production company. Follow her work at: nesslyons.net and on Twitter: @lyonsness

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Filed Under: correspondents, Resources Tagged With: campaigns, sexual harassment, UK, university

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