Written submission from End Violence Against Women Coalition (SPP0096

About the End Violence Against Women Coalition

The End Violence Against Women Coalition is a UK-wide coalition of more than 70 women’s organisations and others working to end violence against women and girls (VAWG) in all its forms, including: sexual violence, domestic violence, forced marriage, sexual exploitation, FGM, stalking and harassment. We campaign for improved national and local government policy and practice in response to all forms of violence against women and girls, and we challenge the wider cultural attitudes that tolerate violence against women and girls and make excuses for it. Our trustees include women who are globally renowned for their pioneering work in setting up the first domestic and sexual violence crisis services, for their academic research in this area, and for having successfully campaigned for considerable legislative and policy change in the UK to end and prevent abuse over the last four decades.

Submission

The scale and impact of sexual harassment of women and girls in public places

1)      How widespread is sexual harassment of women and girls in public places and what form does it take? Do we know whether this has increased or decreased over time?

There is a lack of data and research on both the impact and prevalence of sexual harassment of women and girls in public places in the UK, however some international studies appear to show that as many as 80% of women have experienced sexual harassment[1]. Evidence from the work of expert members of the EVAW Coalition points to it being a routine form of abuse experienced by women and girls, whose impact can be serious and long-term.

Forms of street harassment include actions such as catcalling, wolf-whistling, prolonged staring or ogling, groping, following someone, and intrusive sexualised comments and suggestions. These are sometimes followed by aggressive behaviour and actions when the ‘advance’ is rejected,  something reported by women interviewed by EVAW. Sexual harassment is commonly committed by both groups of men and individual men, it can be both verbal and/or physical harassment, and may be directed towards one or more women.

The EVAW Coalition has commissioned two large scale surveys on sexual harassment, the first in 2012 was a YouGov survey of 1,047 Londoners which highlighted just how routine and common this experience is for women[2].  It found 43% of women respondents aged between 18 and 34 had experienced sexual harassment in public spaces in the last year, and between 27% and 33% of women in this age group had experienced sexual harassment on the transport system.

The survey asked women in London specifically about their experience of unwanted contact or attention (eg wolfwhistling, sexual comments, staring, exposure) of a sexual nature in public spaces over the last year and found that:

•              41% of women aged 18-34 have experienced unwanted sexual attention

•              21% of all women have experienced unwanted sexual attention

•              4% of all women have experienced unwanted sexual touching

The survey also asked women Londoners the same questions about their experience when on public transport in London and again found alarmingly high levels of sexual harassment over the last year:

•              31% of women aged 18-24 have experienced unwanted sexual attention

•              24% of women aged 25-34 have experienced unwanted sexual attention

•              14% of women in all age groups have experienced unwanted sexual attention

•              5% of women in all age groups have experienced unwanted sexual touching

In 2016 EVAW commissioned YouGov to conduct a national poll on experiences of sexual harassment in public places.[3] It found that 64% of women of all ages had experienced unwanted sexual harassment in public places. Additionally, 35% of women had experienced unwanted sexual touching (which may amount to sexual assault). When looking at young women aged 18-24, however, the percentages increased significantly: 85% had faced sexual harassment in public spaces and 45% had experienced unwanted sexual touching.

Most women surveyed also said harassment began at a young age. More than 1 in 4 said it first happened to them before age 16, and more than 3 in 4 said it happened by age 21. Similarly, most of the women interviewed about their experiences in London said that they first experienced sexual harassment as a child/adolescent, eg when walking home from school. This experience is therefore ‘normalised’ for girls and young women and begins at a formative age, contributing to the shaping of messages boys and girls get about what is acceptable behavior between men and women, and teaching girls to minimise experiences of harassment and abuse. 

These surveys of the sexual harassment of adult women in public places in England were not shocking to EVAW because they followed a survey we had commissioned in 2010 of young women’s recent experience of sexual harassment in school. There is ample evidence pointing to endemic levels of abuse and harassment of girls in schools in England and its impact. Our research in 2010, a YouGov poll of 788 16-18 year olds regarding their recent experiences at school, found sexual bullying and harassment to be routine in UK schools, with measures to tackle it often lacking.[4]  Almost a third (29%) of 16-18-year-old girls said they have been subjected to unwanted sexual touching at school. Nearly three-quarters (71%) of all 16-18-year-olds (ie boys and girls) say they hear sexual name-calling with terms such as “slut” or “slag” used towards girls at schools on a daily basis or a few times a week.

A recognition of the commonality of experiences of sexual harassment for women and girls however, does not mean that all women experience it in the same way.  The 2016 film[5] by Imkaan and the EVAW Coalition, I’d just like to be free, is based on interviews with young black and minority ethnic women in the UK and highlights the impact of sexual harassment and verbal abuse which can be racist as well sexualised and misogynistic. The young women talk about the racist stereotypes that harassers direct at them, and about receiving a barrage of racism when they object to harassment. They also speak about the touching, taunts and threats they are subjected to on a daily basis, the things they do to avoid this and the consequences of standing up to it.

This intersection of harrassment with racism can also be seen in the way Muslim women are more likely to be targeted then men in racist attacks on the street, with women who wear traditional Islamic clothing, such as a hijab or niqab, the most likely group to face abuse.  This can be sexualised or non sexualised, contact or non contact abuse. The Tell MAMA (Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks) 2017 study found that 56% of Muslims who suffered incidents of abuse in person are women and according to female victims of Islamophobia, the language of many attackers had misogynistic overtones, meaning they were assaulted for their gender as well as their religion.[6] Other characteristics such as sexuality, class, and disability also impact on women’s experiences of harassment.  Gendered expectations of how women should behave and look, manifests in the nature of sexualised remarks, ‘fat-shaming’ and other abuse directed towards woman.

Young women in the film I’d just like to be free describe sexual harassment as making them feel “vulnerable” and “suffocated”. They reject the idea that sexual harassment is trivial or even flattering. Some experts believe that in fact the repeated experience of sexual harassment has a serious impact on the way many women and girls feel about themselves and their bodies, how they feel about their ability to be alone in public spaces, and their fear of crime. These fears are strongly related to the threat and the reality of violence in the lives of thousands of women and girls. 

We do not know for certain whether sexual harassment in public places is increasing or decreasing. There are a number of difficulties of trying to measure prevalence through research, such as the lack of an agreed upon definition of street harassment as well as the contexts within which it occurs For example, public/private spaces such as bars or clubs, may be excluded from studies on “street harassment” by either researchers or participants themselves[7].

2)      Who are the perpetrators and the victims, and how does it happen?

Men are overwhelmingly the perpetrators, sometimes alone and also in groups, and women predominately the targets.  Little is known about the characteristics and demographics of the perpetrators as they remain a largely unresearched group, particularly when compared to those who commit actual ‘criminal’ offences against women. 

Studies have highlighted that perpetrators can be motivated by boredom or a desire to antagonize, and that men can be more likely to engage in harassment when in groups, compared to when alone, for reasons of anonymity and group bonding. Prevention efforts must challenge the codes of masculinity that encourage men to use women’s bodies as vehicles to express their heterosexual masculinity, and codes of femininity that present the bodies of women and girls as something to be acted on rather than focusing on their capabilities.  Such codes are often reproduced through sexist banter, pornography and media representations that value men and boys for what they do and women and girls for how they look.[8] 

3)      What is the impact of sexual harassment on the lives of women and girls? Are there other effects, such as on bystanders, or on society in general?

Our 2016 survey found that that significantly more women than men say they feel unsafe in public places (63% versus 45%), and almost half are doing conscious “safety planning” if they go out in the evenings, such as avoiding public transport and paying for taxis, leaving early and taking a different route.

This indicates that women and girls are linking sexual harassment to the possibility of more serious assault and this impacts on the decisions they are making about where and when it is safe for them to travel. The impact of the experience of harassment by strangers makes women limit their own choices, particularly in terms of dress and leisure activities, and affects how some women feel about their bodies and their sexuality. Some research also shows that the regular experience of sexual harassment increases women’s fear of violent crime, resulting in women placing additional restrictions on their own and loved ones’ movements in public space.[9]

The extent of the impact of harassment on the precautionary and diversionary measures that women are taking in response to the possibility of sexual harassment or assault in public spaces, is not something effectively captured by research which looks solely at prevalence.   

Wider impacts have included a tendency to minimise this behaviour ie it is ‘just a wolf-whistle’ or suggest it is trivial or flattering and should be ignored.  This type of commentary is likely to have given the message to girls and younger women that being a woman in public places necessarily involves tolerating and not complaining about behaviour which you do actually feel is unpleasant or threatening. For many it carries an implicit message about how men are entitled to talk to women, who the public space belongs to, and how safe women are in that space at different times of day and night.

It is also likely to feed into broader cultural ideas about gender stereotypes and more serious sexual offences, such as myths around what ‘real’ victims are like and who the perpetrators are.  This in turn can influence ‘bystander behaviour’.  In EVAW’s 2016 national survey, only 11% of women said anyone had intervened when they were harassed, though 81% said they wished someone had.

4)      What gaps exist in the evidence about sexual harassment in public places?

There are huge gaps around the experiences of different women with intersecting characteristics and around perpetrators. 

We currently know little about how those who have experienced street harassment would like it to be responded to: that is, what does justice mean for them, and what needs to happen for them to feel as though a sense of justice has been achieved?

When you speak to women who've experienced harassment, prosecutions are often not what women say they're looking for in terms of justice. The women who spoke on the film I just want to be free, said they wanted the men, who were often from their own community, to understand that it was wrong and they wanted them to moderate each other's behaviour and call out misogyny. There was no suggestion that they would report these men to the police which raises important questions, especially given what we know about racism in the criminal justice system. Any new criminal law related to sexual harassment behaviours may be implemented unfairly and disproportionately target minoritised groups, at the same time as working less well for women from minoritised groups who are less likely to seek justice through the criminal justice route. 

It is clear there is an argument for the symbolic use of the law in setting the limits of social acceptability and establishing the seriousness of harm. But the evidence on the justice interests of victims of street harassment suggests education and awareness-raising can act as forms of justice. Because criminal justice is just one form of justice and accountability, and not the only, or often even the most desired, form.

Why does sexual harassment of women and girls in public places happen?

1)      What are the factors (including social and cultural factors) that lead to sexual harassment of women and girls in public places?

Men’s choices - The lack of specific research on men who commit sexual harassment means it is difficult to be precise about the individual drivers of sexual harassment. However, surveys of convicted sex offenders reveal deeply sexist and misogynistic attitudes towards women including adherence to ‘rape myths’ believing that women commonly ‘want’ or ‘deserve/provoke’ abuse. It may be fair to presume that men who feel entitled to comment on and even to touch women’s bodies, also hold deeply sexist and misogynistic attitudes towards women. It would be interesting to compare these with the stated attitudes of men who never commit this behaviour.

Different environments - A failure of different public spaces to deter and take a zero tolerance stand on harassment can contribute to environments where abuse goes unchallenged or ignored, for example on transport networks. An extreme example of this is women-only public transport buses or train carriages which imply that a certain volume of male harassment/abuse is inevitable and cannot be controlled-stopped in the non-women only spaces.

2)      How do men and boys learn what is acceptable behaviour? 

There is a primary failure to tackle sexist and intersecting attitudes with young people at school which can challenge the attitudes that excuse or minimise sexual harassment and abuse.  Young LGBT people are disproportionately bullied in schools based on the same ‘gender norms’ which are used to sexually bully girls and to justify men’s and boys’ sexual entitlement. A 2012 Stonewall report found that more than half (55 per cent) of lesbian, gay and bi pupils have experienced direct bullying and two in five (41 per cent) have attempted or thought about taking their own life directly because of bullying.[10]

Men and boys also learn from role models, be that within the family, community, school, other institutions, or culture.  Access to what is now very widespread and ‘normal’ misogynistic narratives in pornography  - that model aggressive male and submissive female who turns out to want sex or rape after she apparently initially ‘resisted’ provide deeply conflicting messages for boys and young men and even older men. 

There is also often a failure of others to intervene; some of our survey respondents reported incidents of sexual harassment and assault where onlookers did nothing.  While acknowledging the calculations that bystanders have to make about safety and not escalating an incident with potentially violent person, it is clear that the decision to offend, often repeatedly, is related to knowledge that it is rare that someone will intervene.

3)      What evidence, if any, is there of links between harmful attitudes and other behaviours such as paying for sex or using pornography?

Almost four in ten (39 per cent) boys in England aged 14-17 admit they have regularly watched pornography. [11] Young people’s exposure to pornography is linked to unrealistic attitudes about sex, beliefs that women are sex objects, and less progressive attitudes to gender roles (e.g. male dominance and female submission).[12]

The Everyday Sexism Project – where people record their experiences of sexism, is full of examples of how this normalization of porn can affect both boys and girls. One online contributor, a 13-year old girl, wrote that she was so scared to have sex she would cry nearly every night. A boy at school had shown her a video on his mobile phone, and she didn’t understand why “the real life sex that we see is so scary and painful and the woman is crying and getting hurt.”

She went on: “I try to think don't worry you won’t have to do it for ages but everyone at school keeps acting like it’s normal and we’re meant to do it really soon like some of the boys keep asking me have I done it and can I do it with them and showing me the horrible pictures and things.”[13]

The ubiquity of smartphones and online access also increases opportunities for coercive behavior. Girlguiding’s research described this as a ‘life under surveillance.’[14] and found evidence that 5% of girls had a sexual photo of them shared without their consent and 23% have had threatening things said about them on social media.[15]

4)      How can negative attitudes and behaviours be changed?

Families and communities have a critical role to play, as do institutions such as schools which should have a comprehensive relationships and sex education (RSE) offer with a zero tolerance policy towards sexual harassment, cross referenced in bullying, equality and code of conduct policies.

National and local Government should also have a clear vision and strategy for eradicating this behaviour including public awareness campaigns indicating that sexual harassment is not tolerated. All those in positions of leadership, across public, private and voluntary sectors, should speak out about equality, harassment and acceptable behaviour and be clear that respectful treatment of one another is a basic requirement for participation in community life.

C) Preventing and responding to sexual harassment of women and girls in public places

1)       How should the Government tackle sexual harassment in public places?

To address gaps in knowledge, further research on victims and perpetrators should be undertaken.  This should take an intersectional approach to better understand the nature of and impact of harassment on women with different characteristics. Further work to identify who the perpetrators are and to understand prevalence, as well as a commitment and recommendations for tackling sexual harassment in different parts of public space: transport, high streets, retail space (with retailers), bars-clubs, should be developed working with leaders in these fields and specialist women’s groups.

We would recommend a broader campaign to change attitudes and make sexual harassment less socially acceptable, and ultimately make more people feel confident about intervening if they see it. Such campaigns should draw on the media and other public advertising platforms to challenge harmful gender norms.  The government should consult with academic experts and the specialist violence against women sector, particularly those groups working with BME women, women with disabilities, women and men with diverse sexualities  and other marginalised groups.

2)       What are the police, local authorities or other bodies doing to tackle sexual harassment in public places? Who else has a role?

Like many other forms of abuse of women, sexual harassment is often not reported to the authorities. Some forms of sexual harassment may constitute an offence, including indecent assault, threat to rape, exposure and others, but many other forms of street sexual harassment are not offences.

Some police forces are now recording some of this behaviour as hate crime.  The potential benefits of this include better data gathering and recording of incidents that are currently not recorded as crimes.  However, the EVAW Coalition has some concerns about this approach. 

The hate crime framing does not make something illegal but gives a way of either enhancing sentencing for already existing crimes, or a way of recording incidents that aren't crimes. For street harassment, much of the behaviour is not criminal, and would arguably be very difficult to criminalise such as to make prosecution realistic. Therefore, making misogyny a hate crime would not necessarily lead to successful prosecutions.

There is an argument for the symbolic use of the law in setting the limits of social acceptability and establishing the seriousness of harm. But the evidence on the justice interests of victims of street harassment suggests education and awareness-raising can also act as forms of justice.

We are also concerned about moving to a 'hate frame’ when there has been so much work and investment from the women’s sector over decades in building the ‘violence against women and girls’ frame, which is current national policy framework in this area, and which is important exactly because it allows many different forms of gender-based violence to be seen and understood as related to each other and to women’s inequality. Many forms of violence against women and girls are not ‘reducible’ to a hate framing – unlike most other areas of hate crime, which are usually committed online or in the street by strangers, domestic and sexual violence are usually committed by someone known to the female victim and include complicated power dynamics and desire to control which are more complicated than hate. It is also important that the conceptual connection to ‘the continuum of sexual violence’ is not lost in framing sexual harassment in public places.

Motivations behind public sexual harassment are also not the same as the prejudice typically associated with hate crime. Sexual harassment is a result of the social norms that position men’s entitlement and women as something that men can use to demonstrate their heterosexuality and masculinity to each other and to themselves.

Police and PCSOs certainly have a role to play and the EVAW Coalition has been interested in, and supportive of, the Nottingham pilot as it seemed to demonstrate the power of a partnership between specialist women's groups and the police. In Nottingham the goal was to increase understanding of street harassment and get a better picture of prevalence. It also enabled the police to make a public statement about sexual harassment which initiated a public conversation. But there is a risk that rolling this out across the country, without these clear aims and without good partnerships with specialist women’s organisations, will be much less successful than the Nottingham pilot.

Schools also have a pivotal role.  EVAW’s report ‘All Day, Every Day’ into sexual violence in schools recommended that the DfE should consult on and considerably revise the key statutory schools safeguarding guidance: Keeping Children Safe in Education, to recognize the prevalence and risk of sexual harassment and abuse which girls are very disproportionately subjected to, as well as the connections between this abuse and ‘sexting’, online harassment and abuse in relationships. New statutory guidance has been issued and is being consulted on. Other appropriate responses would include monitoring the prevalence of these forms of abuse; and ensuring sexual harassment and abuse of girls is included explicitly in safeguarding and child protection training.

3)       Are more or different laws needed? Or do existing laws need to be better understood or enforced?

Existing law does not cover the majority of what makes up street sexual harassment, but it is unlikely that new laws would be a quick fix for this widespread phenomonen. Women we have worked with mention they don’t necessarily want to involve the police but that they want the behavior to stop and to be challenged, especially by men’s peers.  Our answer above to C(2) explains why we believe that making misogyny a ‘hate crime’ may be too reductivist an approach and lead to ineffective law.

Research conducted in the UK has shown that women who have experienced sexual harassment in public support more police as a deterrent (53%), better street lighting (38%), more transport staff (38%) and public awareness campaigns encouraging others to intervene (35%). No woman reported to us that this problem should be ignored and no measures taken.[16]

There are good examples of where London transport has used railway byelaws to exclude known offenders even when their offence has not been criminal. BTP and TFL also made sexual harassment a key priority by for example retraining CCTV operators to look for and track the behavior and known perpetrators when previously there had been no such priority.  Training for staff, including transport staff, on taking reports of sexual harassment seriously and recording incidents is key, as is publicity and public awareness campaigns that demonstrate that a transport authority or local authority for example take the behavior seriously.

4) What interventions are available, or should be available, for perpetrators and potential perpetrators?

Public sexual harassment is an under-reported issue, meaning interventions cannot just be about responding to individual incidents, but should address cultural change through long term investment in changing ‘gender norms’ by education and public awareness campaigns. 

Some examples of interventions include ‘Understanding public sexual harassment’, a series of four evidence-based lesson plans developed by experts in sexual violence prevention based on research of women’s experiences in the UK, and the work of Dr. Maria Garner on men and masculinities.[17] The sessions were developed as part of a project funded by the ESRC and Durham Law School which used drama to engage young people in identifying and challenging sexual harassment in public.

Research suggests prevention work with men and boys should focus on developing empathy and shifting codes of masculinity that encourage a demonstration of heterosexuality and the use of women’s bodies as a form of male bonding. Relationships and Sex Education must underline healthy and consensual gender relationships and challenge these ‘toxic’ masculinities. 

5)  Is current support adequate for victims of sexual harassment in public places?

Specialist sexual violence organisations such as Rape Crisis Centres, provide valuable support to women after any type of sexual assault.  Some of the offences classified as sexual harassment, such as men who have masturbated on women on crowded trains, or indecent exposure, which is a very common experience for girls and women, are commonly minimised but do harm women and girls, and in some cases will change their feelings about and behaviour in public spaces. There should be support available for these women from specialist organisations, but they are too often facing uncertain funding and are unable to meet demand for their services.  The government should ensure that there is sustainable funding for Rape Crisis Centres, which not only ensures their work can continue but also allows for the expansion of specialist support and prevention work around public street harassment. 

6)Are there good practice examples or innovative thinking about tackling sexual harassment in the public realm either in the UK or internationally?

A body of research points to ‘feminist self-defence’ as being effective in addressing the way experiences of sexual harassment teach girls and women they should behave in a particular way to take up less space in public.  It has been linked to positive consequences for women including increased self-esteem, assertiveness and a reduction in women’s fear of crime.[18]

There are examples from New Zealand of government-funded programmes for school-aged girls delivering training to almost 10,000 girls each year, as well as delivering to women in communities that are specifically targeted for sexual violence due to geographic, cultural and/or disability-related isolation.[19]

March 2018