Street harassment: A bigger problem than you may think

Honks. Wolf whistles. Shouting. Unsolicited remarks, positive or negative, about one’s clothing or appearance from strangers. Unwanted conversations when there’s no escape route or polite way of excusing oneself. Unwanted touching and solicitations for sex.

All of the above fall under the umbrella of “street harassment” and according to a study of 811 women, one in four girls experience some form of this by the time they are twelve years old, and almost 90% by the time they are nineteen.

The thought of a twelve-year-old girl being whistled and leered at by grown men is disturbing on its own, but research is beginning to show that the really troubling threat of street harassment isn’t even the way it humiliates women and makes them fearful in public: the real threat is that this fear, and the elaborate survival-style measures many women take to avoid it, limits girls’ and women’s mobility and their access to education and employment on a wide scale.  According to StopStreetHarassment.org, 50% of women report altering their traveling routes to avoid persistent harassment; 45% avoid being out after dark, and 40% avoid going out unaccompanied.

Street harassment costs women money. Women shell out for taxis to avoid harassers on public transportation or to avoid waiting at bus stops where they feel unsafe. They buy gym memberships because it’s safer and more peaceful than exercising outdoors. Nearly 20% have moved neighborhoods to avoid harassers in the area, and nearly 10% have switched jobs. Uncounted numbers have let daily harassment influence their decision whether to take night classes or go on business trips.

The good news is organizations like Stop Street Harassment and Hollaback are drawing attention to this issue worldwide. In 2011, they started International Anti-Street Harassment Day, which expanded into a whole week in 2012.

These organizations provide a number of suggestions for taking action to make women and girls safe from harassment in their own communities. Some are aimed at promoting awareness, with low-tech strategies such as hanging flyers around your neighborhood with the friendly reminder that harassment can be a crime; and higher-tech ones such as the Hollaback iPhone and Droid apps. They also offer in-the-moment ideas for confronting harassment, when it appears safe to do so, when it happens to you or when you see another person being victimized.

For example, Stop Street Harassment’s guide to bystander intervention points out that stepping into help somebody doesn’t necessitate braving a full-scale confrontation with their harasser:

Many of the suggestions that do not directly challenge a harasser, such as asking the woman if she wants help or asking the harasser what time it is, are excellent to use when one is not sure if it is harassment that is occurring, if they do not want to dis-empower the woman, or if they fear becoming the target of the harasser’s inappropriate behavior themselves. Something as simple as clearing one’s throat or coughing can help defuse a situation too, particularly if a harasser does not notice other people are around (such as on a dark street).

The verdict is in: public harassment limits opportunities for girls and women just as effectively as outright discrimination. So this spring and summer, the Stop Street Harassments movement suggests that women get out their smartphones or make some homemade fliers and take action

For more information about the ways street harassment affects the lives of women, and what you can do to help, visit the links below:

http://www.stopstreetharassment.org/strategies/creative/

http://www.forbes.com/2010/07/13/sexual-harassment-women-commuter-forbes-woman-leadership-workplace.html

http://www.stopstreetharassment.org/about/what-is-street-harassment/why-stopping-street-harassment-matters/

http://www.stopstreetharassment.org/about/what-is-street-harassment/

Women’s Law Project Leads Call for Review of Penn State University’s Handling of Allegations of Sexual Assault and Violence

In the wake of the recent disturbing reports that Penn State University failed to properly respond to allegations of sexual abuse by a former assistant football coach, the Women’s Law Project (WLP) spearheaded a group of civil rights organizations, including the National Women’s Law Center, ACLU-PA, Women’s Sports Foundation, Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center, California Women’s Law Center, Legal Voice, Equal Rights Advocates, Southwest Women’s Law Center, and Equity Legal, in requesting the Office for Civil Rights for the U.S. Department of Education (OCR) undertake a Title IX compliance review of how Penn State University handles allegations of sexual assault and violence, particularly when such allegations are lodged against athletes and athletic department staff.  The OCR is an agency tasked with ensuring equal access to education, which includes investigating and resolving compliance issues and complaints of discrimination.  A primary tool of the OCR is a compliance review, a process by which the OCR can target its resources and proactively take steps to focus on specific compliance problems that are particularly acute or national in scope. 

In the letter submitted last week on behalf of ten civil rights organizations, WLP requested that the OCR enforce its requirement that schools adjudicate sexual harassment and violence complaints on an equal and consistent basis.  The organizations’ request referenced a statement in the OCR’s recent April 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter which stated no preferential treatment would be given to athletes in such circumstances, providing that “[i]f a complaint of sexual violence involves a student athlete, the school must follow its standard procedures for resolving sexual violence complaints.  Such complaints must not be addressed solely by athletic department procedures.”   

Given the shocking allegations made against Penn State regarding its purported failure to sufficiently respond to reported child sexual abuse perpetrated by a member of its athletic department, this request for the OCR to conduct a thorough and comprehensive review of Penn State’s procedures is not only timely, but essential.  Indeed, in their letter to the OCR, the civil rights groups cited disturbing statistics regarding the frequency of sexual assault by student athletes in general, and significantly, point out numerous red flags with respect to Penn State’s poor track record in this area.  Specifically, the groups cite several examples of publicly available information that highlight incidents suggesting special treatment and slaps on the wrist for athletes committing sexual assault and violence.  The letter also calls for routine reviews to assess whether schools across the country respond differently to complaints of sexual harassment and violence when athletes and athletic department staff are implicated.

Please visit http://www.womenslawproject.org/ for more information.

Sexual Misconduct at Yale Highlights Negligence for Women’s Protection

The New York Times recently published an article on sexual misconduct at Yale. The article speaks on the growing concern for the amount of sexual misconduct on the campus.

Suddenly, however, these episodes have the campus in a state of high alert. Yale acknowledged last week that the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights was investigating a complaint filed by 16 students and recent graduates, accusing the university of violating Title IX, the federal gender-equality law, by failing to eliminate a hostile sexual environment on campus. The complaint alleges a range of acts against women, from taunts to assaults, over seven years.

Various questions have been raised about Yale’s response to the activity occurring on their campus. Many have criticized them for not being vigilant enough when it came to disciplining students, and investigating crimes. There is this notion that the university is more willing to protect their free speech and fraternity culture than their female population, which constitutes slightly more than half of the student body.

Administrators said they sympathized with those who were unhappy with the disciplinary process. Punishing students in public episodes like the chanting is complicated by a hallowed tradition of free speech on campus, as well as by fraternities’ independence from the university and by confidentiality requirements that prevent Yale from naming students it disciplines.

We can only hope Yale becomes more alert to problems occurring on their campus. Their failure to acknowledge and investigate incidents is extremely troubling, and only promotes intolerance and fear on the campus. There is no excuse for the negligence displayed by the university, and we applaud the 16 women who have stood up and demanded accountability on their campus.

A Victory for Female Employees at Novartis

A class-action suit that lasted five weeks in trial was decided last week in favor of female employees at the pharmaceutical company Novartis. One of the women’s lawyers described the “overwhelming” evidence of discrimination against women, especially pregnant women, in pay and promotions:

Women testified they were subject to hostile remarks, especially concerning pregnancy, and unfairly passed over for promotion in what they described as a sexist atmosphere controlled by male district managers.

More specific examples are emerging as women tell their stories to the press. One woman was told by her manager to get an abortion. Amy Velez, one of the twelve women who testified, was “passed over for promotion by men who had inferior sales numbers,” and then overheard “a manager asking recruiters if prospective employees were married or had children.” Holly Waters, a plaintiff, was fired when she was seven months pregnant, despite being the “highest-ranking sales representative in the district,” because she took time off “on advice of her doctors.” One manager reportedly “showed female co-workers pornographic images and invited them to sit on his lap.”

For at least five years, this discrimination has been devastating for the thousands of female employees at Novartis. “Loss in pay and promotions” barely begins to illustrate the extent to which this hostile work environment took its toll on these women. Waters lost not only her job but the health insurance benefits with it, at a time when comprehensive medical care was crucial. In a world where “corporate culture… expected female representatives to be available and amenable to sexual advances from the doctors they called on,” we’re contemplating a lot more in personal losses for these women than foregone income.

To that end, the New York federal court jury decided that $3.36 million dollars would be paid to the twelve testifying women, in “compensatory damages for pain, suffering and loss of enjoyment in individual amounts ranging from $50,000 to nearly $600,000.”  But that’s not the end of it. Arguments about punitive damages will be made soon, and the 5,600 female employees will be able to apply for similar damages in the coming weeks.

G20 Protesters Claim Police Officers Sexually Assaulted and Harassed Them

Reports are emerging that a number of individuals who were arrested for protesting the G20 in Pittsburgh on Sept. 25 were sexually harassed and even assaulted by police officers. Although none of these individuals were actually charged, some report that they are still experiencing ‘aftershocks’ from the day because of the way the police treated them.

Carnegie Mellon student Casey Li Brander, for example, recalls hearing a male police officer say “Let’s get the hot ones out,” as she and 20 other women sat handcuffed inside a bus. Although charges against Brander were dismissed because she called 911 and reported that she was surrounded by police and unable to find an escape route, she was still arrested and taken by bus to State Correctional Institution-Pittsburgh. She says:

“When I arrived at SCI, I was frisked really intrusively with five guys watching,” Brander recalls. The female guard performing the search “really lifted me up by the crotch one time, while I was trying not to cry,” as male officers laughed. “It’s totally not cool for five guys to be standing around, dissecting me with their eyes while I’m being felt up by the female guard.”

Another CMU student, Stuti Pandey, says:

[She] recalls her own frisking on the Cathedral lawn by a female officer. “The officer literally thrust her hands between my butt cheeks, between my labia, and was groping between my breasts from outside of the clothes I was wearing,” Pandey writes in a statement sent to CP. “It felt like an intense sexual assault.”

Another student, Deidre Martinex Meehan, reports that officers took photos of her while she was frisked says that she later heard officers call women in the group derogatory gender-specific insults and announce as they walked by, “Two hot and sexy females coming through!” Still another student, Danielle Hauser, says that “I’m pretty sure I have post-traumatic stress disorder because I have had bad sexual experiences, and the way the police were dealing with us reminded me of that.”

Although the Pittsburgh City Paper reports that all of these instances were cases of “sexual harassment,” when an officer lifts you up by the crotch or thrusts his/her hands into your labia, it is unquestionably sexual assault. This form of violence results from and reinforces power disparities. These are blatant cases of human rights violations and are crimes against both the individuals and our community.

According to City Paper, the Greater Pittsburgh ACLU is currently seeking plaintiffs for potential civil suits, including those complaining of sexual harassment by police.

Standing Up for Victims of Sexual Assault and Harassment

Senator Al Franken may be new to the U.S. Senate, but he’s trying to correct some old problems. He has introduced an amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill, SA 2588, that would bar the Department of Defense from contracting with companies that force their employees who file sexual assault or harassment claims into arbitration.

The issue came to the surface with the case of Jamie Leigh Jones, an employee of defense contractor KBR who says she was gang-raped by fellow employees in Iraq and then locked inside a shipping container when she reported the incident. A court recently ruled that Ms. Jones has the right to bring a lawsuit against KBR, but the incident happened at least three years ago.

Please contact your senators and tell them that you support this amendment to the bill. No victim of sexual assault should have to endure such treatment.

Reports for Sexual Assaults on the Rise in U.S. Military

A report from the Pentagon for 2008 showed that sexual assault reports rose over 25% last year. While this rise seems shocking, Defense Department officials state that the increase is likely due to a growth in victim reports and not in sexual assaults themselves. The increase shows that the Defense Department’s policy of encouraging victims to come forward with instances of sexual assault is working and helping to remove some of the stigma attached to reporting sexual assault in the military.

However, of the 2,763 investigations last year on cases of sexual assault, only 832 resulted in punishments for the perpetrators. We hope that the increase in reports marks a new level of awareness and concern for instances of sexual assault in the military, and the Defense Department continues to encourage victims to come forward.

Sexual abuse and the military

An article originally published in the Los Angeles Times and reprinted in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reveals that 15% of female soldiers who have sought medical care after being deployed to Iraq and/or Afghanistan between 2001 and 2007 experienced sexual assault or sexual harassment during their service. The percentage of male soldiers who were sexually abused during that time was 0.7%. And the women who were sexually violated were 2.3 times more likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder than women who were not violated.

Last year, the New York Times published a feature story in its weekly magazine about the lives of female soldiers in today’s overstretched military and the incidence of sexual abuse in the military. And earlier this year, the Times reported on female employees of U.S. contractors in Iraq who have testified in front of Congress about the sexual abuse they suffered while on the job overseas.