“Mentally at that time, I was more in a state of shock than anything else and was confused at what had happened,” says a 20-year-old who was a victim of sexual harassment at a club recently. In a survey, it was found that a total of 71% of women belonging to all age groups in the UK have faced sexual harassment in public spaces this year.
69% of women aged between 18 to 29 have become victims of unwanted sexual comments, gestures or actions, while women who are aged 60 and above have comparatively been less victimised at 44%.
Talking to two female students of the University of Westminster, it was found that they have been victims of sexual harassment in public places, especially clubs and outside them. One of them was able to place an unofficial complaint, while the other one simply did not consider reporting that incident because it felt pointless.
A 20-year-old student says that she was sexually harassed by a security guard at Heaven, a nightclub in Central London in June this year. “As I came out of the toilets he was standing outside the bathroom and as I walked past, he groped me. Before I could process what had happened, he did it again.” Inappropriate touching or verbal contact are some of the ways women have been harassed in public for years now. Women have a right to feel safe in public places but somehow still feel that their safety is being threatened.
“I grabbed my friend straight away to let her know and we got out of the club by hiding behind big groups to get away from that security guard”, the 20-year-old said about how she dealt with it. 45% of women who do not report sexual harassment cases think that reporting these cases wouldn’t help, and 44% confessed that having enough confidence to be able to report the incident would decrease the recurrence of such incidents.
In the case of the nightclub, where the security guard was the harasser, it gives the victim little to no confidence in reporting their issue to authorities. “Even now I’m wary when clubbing that if something goes wrong, the people there to ensure safety aren’t always the ones I can go to”, says the 20-year-old.
Another 26-year-old student shares that instances like grabbing, groping and cat-calling on the streets happen to her a lot of times. A few weeks back, in November, when she was going back home at 2 am from a club, a group of 4 men in a car moved past her while cat-calling her and asking her if she was willing to have sex. On being asked about how she felt at that time, she replied “I am not surprised when such things happen anymore, it makes me angry and mad. I am unable to understand why some people think it is appropriate to behave that way.”
“This one time when I was at a bar and my arse was grabbed by a random man. I reported this to the bar staff and the security took him out of the club. It makes me upset because as a woman you always have to be on the guard, always have to carry some kind of weapons, see who you are with- basically think about your safety so much!”, the 26-year-old recalls one of her experiences.
In a survey done by YouGov in March 2021 on more than 1,000 women of all age groups from Europe, namely Britain, Sweden, Germany, France and Denmark, they were asked to identify the ones they faced among the 12 potential forms of sexual harassment.
Taking a closer focus on the women of Britain, it was found out that almost half of the women that were questioned, 49% to be precise, have been commented over directly on their attractiveness in an inappropriate manner by someone they are not physically or romantically involved with. 45% have been wolf-whistled or cat-called at by strangers; 43% of women’s breasts were stared at; 41% of women were winked at and 40% of women had a sexual joke directed at them. 34% of the questioned women were asked for a drink and two in every five women were asked for sexual favours by someone who was not an acquaintance.
These being the verbal form of sexual harassment, there is also data of physical sexual harassment where 38% of women’s lower back has been held without consent. A third of the total women- 35% have been grabbed, and 32% have had someone dancing by pressing themselves against these women.
14% of women have been flashed or exposed to the harasser’s genitalia without consent, but there is also a good 18% of women who have not faced any of these forms of sexual harassment and 3% of women choose not to answer.
Data on Potential forms of Sexual Harassment faced by European Women (Source: YouGov, 2021)
Earlier this year, Priti Patel announced that the government would take action to protect women from such harassment that is experienced in public places like cat-calling and wolf whistles. This comes out as promising as it also includes the possibility of making sexual harassment a new form of a criminal offence.
In a poll conducted by YouGov in August 2021, people were asked if a woman faces certain kinds of sexual harassment, should or should not be considered a criminal offence, to which there are some surprising responses.
Data on forms of Sexual Harassment and if they should be criminalised (Source: YouGov, 2021)
78% of the people believe that wolf-whistling should not be a criminal offence, and 50% think the same about cat-calling. While 64% of people disapprove of pictures being taken without consent, 23% think that it should not be a criminal offence. 37% of people think that continuing talking to someone after being asked to stop once should be criminalised, whereas 44% say it should not.
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