Strategies for Combating Street Harassment

While ultimately street harassment, rape, and domestic violence are unlikely to end until there is a cultural respect for women and an end to the idea that women’s primary identity is as a sex object, I compiled a short list of actions people can take to try to help that cultural shift occur and help stop street harassment.  In doing so, I do not want to ignore the fact that men must be educated to stop harassing women and that it's not a woman's responsibility to stop harassment, but rather my suggestions are for those who would rather take the matter into their own hands and act instead of waiting for men to figure out that it's wrong to harass women and that they should stop.

The following are suggested ways people can work to help combat street harassment at an individual and grassroots level:

Individual Level: At an individual level, there are several ways people can try to combat street harassment.  The following are some suggestions:

1. Talk about your street harassment experiences with family, friends, coworkers, and acquaintances. This serves as a consciousness-raising tool for other women who may have thought they were alone in dealing with street harassment or had always tried to ignore it. It can make men aware of the problem and turn them into allies in stopping harassment by encouraging them not to harass and to stop their friends and other men from harassing.
   
   
2. If you feel safe enough to do so, confront the harassers calmly, firmly, and without insults or personal attacks, to let them know that their actions are unwelcome, unacceptable, and wrong and why. Use tactics suggested by Martha Langelan and the UK Anti-Street Harassment website. Challenging the harassers in a public place may also make the people around them aware of the problem and inspire others to speak up and confront harassers.
   
   
3. Intervene when someone else is being harassed to help her out of the situation and let the harasser know that his actions are not condoned by others. Men engaging in this tactic can be particularly powerful since men look to other men for approval.
   
   
4. Take actions that will create real consequences for the harasser, such as reporting the person to a police officer or other person of authority, like a bus driver or subway employee.
   
   
5. If the harassers work for an identifiable company, an individual can call or write the company to let them know that their employees are harassing women and why that is unacceptable. This raises the awareness of the employer that harassment happens and people do not like it and will hopefully result in the employer taking action to prevent the employees from harassing women in the future.
   
   
6. Write and submit an article about street harassment to a magazine or newspaper.
   
   
7. If you are in a position of mentoring (as a family member, teacher, or friend) educate boys not to speak with disrespect to women and teach girls how to stand up for themselves and challenge disrespectful behavior.
   
   
8. Volunteer time or donate money to fund anti-street harassment organizations, workshops, or community projects.
   
   
9. Take and/or encourage others to take self defense classes so they feel more empowered to safely confront their harasser(s).
   
   
10. Post your street harassment story or tactic suggestions on a website or blog.

Grassroots Level: There are several other ways to combat street harassment collectively, through grassroots efforts.

1. Join or start an activist organizations such as the Street Harassment Project, Rogers Park Young Women’s Action Team, RightRides, or NYC SafeStreets to work to end street harassment in your area.  It not only raises awareness of the problem but concretely aids women dealing with street harassment and works on preventative measures so women are not harassed in the future. 
   
   
2. Create a lobbying group or petition for anti-street harassment ordinances in your city or state so that people who have had serious incidents of street harassment and want to seek legal recourse can have a way to do. 
   
   
3. Schools have drug-free programs, programs to encourage students to recycle, and programs to teach students racial and cultural tolerance, but very little exists on how to treat peers of the opposite sex with respect.  Organize or participate in a lobbying group or petition for inclusion of programs that teach respect for one’s peers at every grade level.