Stop Street Harassment

Strategies

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

Individual Level:

In the Moment:

If you feel safe enough to do so, assertively respond to the harassers calmly, firmly, and without insults or personal attacks to let them know that their actions are unwelcome, unacceptable, and wrong. Here is advice from Martha Langelan on dealing with drive-by harassers.
Hand the harasser information about harassment. Here are some examples from Appetite for Equal Rights, Street Harassment Project, graduate student Sarah VanDenbergh, and Stop Street Harassment (Show Respect 1 | 2, Wait a Minute 1 | 2, Picking up Women 1 | 2).
If the harassers work for an identifiable company, call or write the company to let them know that their employees are harassing women and why that is unacceptable. (Here are two contributor Stop Street Harassment blog posts with examples of how they successfully did this.)
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.
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. [NOTE: Here is a statute in New York against serial acts of public lewdness]

Before or after being harassed

Talk about your street harassment experiences with family, friends, coworkers, and acquaintances. A lot of people don't realize how often it happens and how upsetting it is. Maybe if more people knew, it would happen less.
Post your street harassment story or tactic suggestions on a website or blog to raise awareness about the problem.
Tweet street harassment stories on Twitter. Add @catcalled #hbnyc or #streetharassment to your post and it will be added to @Catcalled, @HollaBackNYC, or @StopStHarassmnt’s respective thread of harassment stories. Keep your own log of harassment experiences the way @streetharassmnt does.
Put up anti-street harassment fliers, posters or signs (click on link for street signs) or hand out anti-street harassment fliers. Here's another example of a street harassment poster.
Write and submit an article or op-ed about street harassment to a magazine or newspaper.
Start mapping where you are harassed (google earth offers a free tool to do so with a tutorial) or contribute your story to someone who has a map to help visually show its volume. If there are patterns about where it occurs, then you can ask the police or a local business to help intervene in that area.
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 empower girls to stand up for themselves and challenge disrespectful behavior.
Men, we need you as allies! Read about how men can help stop street harassment. I also recommend reading Brian Martin's "Men: Help stop public harassment," Jackson Katz’s The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help and Todd Denny’s Unexpected Allies: Men Who Stop Rape.
Volunteer time or donate money to fund anti-street harassment organizations, workshops, or community projects.
Take and/or encourage others to take self defense classes so they feel more empowered to safely confront their harasser(s). [Where I live there is a great program called Defend Yourself that even has an annual workshop about dealing with street harassers]

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Grassroots Level:

Join or start an activist organizations such as the Street Harassment Project, Rogers Park Young Women’s Action Team, RightRides, NYC SafeStreets, or Blank Noise 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.
Create a lobbying group or petition for anti-street harassment ordinances in your city or state - like activists in NYC and Cairo are - so that people who have had serious incidents of street harassment and want to seek legal recourse can have a way to do so.
Organize or participate in a lobbying group or petition for inclusion of school programs that teach respect for one’s peers at every grade level.
Make a documentary about street harassment to help educate the public, like Monique and Nijla are, Girls for Gender Equity did, Tracey did, and Maggie did.
Organize or participate in an anti-street harassment campaign.

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NOTE: The suggestions must be practiced at your own risk. There is no one way to address every instance of street harassment and it is up to you to decide what will be the best way for you to act to maintain your safety and dignity.

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

Individual Level:

In the Moment:

If you feel safe enough to do so, assertively respond to the harassers calmly, firmly, and without insults or personal attacks to let them know that their actions are unwelcome, unacceptable, and wrong. Here is advice from Martha Langelan on dealing with drive-by harassers.

Hand the harasser information about harassment. Here are some examples from Appetite for Equal Rights, Street Harassment Project, graduate student Sarah VanDenbergh, and Stop Street Harassment (Show Respect 1 | 2, Wait a Minute 1 | 2, Picking up Women 1 | 2).

If the harassers work for an identifiable company, call or write the company to let them know that their employees are harassing women and why that is unacceptable. (Here are two contributor Stop Street Harassment blog posts with examples of how they successfully did this.)

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.

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. [NOTE: Here is a statute in New York against serial acts of public lewdness]

Before or after being harassed

Talk about your street harassment experiences with family, friends, coworkers, and acquaintances. A lot of people don't realize how often it happens and how upsetting it is. Maybe if more people knew, it would happen less.

Post your street harassment story or tactic suggestions on a website or blog to raise awareness about the problem.

Tweet street harassment stories on Twitter. Add @catcalled #hbnyc or #streetharassment to your post and it will be added to @Catcalled, @HollaBackNYC, or @StopStHarassmnt’s respective thread of harassment stories. Keep your own log of harassment experiences the way @streetharassmnt does.

Put up anti-street harassment fliers, posters or signs (click on link for street signs) or hand out anti-street harassment fliers. Here's another example of a street harassment poster.

Write and submit an article or op-ed about street harassment to a magazine or newspaper.

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 empower girls to stand up for themselves and challenge disrespectful behavior.

Men, we need you as allies! Read about how men can help stop street harassment. I also recommend reading Brian Martin's "Men: Help stop public harassment," Jackson Katz’s The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help and Todd Denny’s Unexpected Allies: Men Who Stop Rape.

Volunteer time or donate money to fund anti-street harassment organizations, workshops, or community projects.

Take and/or encourage others to take self defense classes so they feel more empowered to safely confront their harasser(s). [Where I live there is a great program called Defend Yourself that even has an annual workshop about dealing with street harassers]

Return to the top of the page

Grassroots Level:

Create a lobbying group or petition for anti-street harassment ordinances in your city or state - like activists in NYC and Cairo are - so that people who have had serious incidents of street harassment and want to seek legal recourse can have a way to do so.

Organize or participate in a lobbying group or petition for inclusion of school programs that teach respect for one’s peers at every grade level.

Make a documentary about street harassment to help educate the public, like Monique and Nijla are, Girls for Gender Equity did, Tracey did, and Maggie did.

Organize or participate in an anti-street harassment campaign.