Hey there honey! Can I get your number? Can I just get a smile? Honking. Whistling. (These are just the g-rated versions.)
(You all know this meme, but is there more to it? SOURCE: Google Images)
Although there is no doubt that our society has changed a lot, some things still remain the same, such as catcalling. Catcalling can make women feel incredibly unsafe and uncomfortable. As much as our society has changed, women are still facing catcalling and oversexualization, and so much more on a daily basis. So much so that there is an entire website dedicated to cat calling in New York City alone. Women fought for hundreds of years just to get basic rights, and we are still constantly fighting for ourselves. Being born in 2001, I can only imagine how difficult it would have been to be in woman even just 50 years ago, much less to attend college 50 years ago.
In a New York Times article, the first women to attend Yale reflect on their college experience. And yes that was really only 50 years ago… The article has a very fitting and expected title, “A Very Unwelcome Feeling”. The women on campus were out numbered seven to one, so it is no shock they felt so unwelcome. Of the (Women students at the dining hall in 1970 SOURCE: NY Times) women in the class of 1969, sixty-five percent of the women said they had at least one class where they were the only woman. In this time period, it was not very common for women to go to college to receive higher education, they were expected to be in the home caring for children and doing chores like cooking and cleaning. The male students and teachers were not afraid to let the women know this. The women said that even though they were able to attend Yale, they were not treated as equals and constantly faced harassment. Through a survey it was revealed that about one in six of these women were harassed and that was only the amount of women harassed by staff and faculty.
(Women’s march in Toronto SOURCE: CBC)
In the era of #MeToo, the amount of women who have spoken up about sexual abuse and harassment has increased exponentially. But in this time period, many women were ashamed. Furthermore, in 1969 “sexual harassment” was not yet a legal term. As I was about to look up going to look up the statistic for the number of rapes and sexual harassments reported over the years, I had an “aha moment”. Even though we are now in the era of coming forward about struggles we have gone through instead of suppressing it, there are still many women that are not comfortable or are too scared to come forward. The National Sexual Violence Resource Center states that more than 90% of sexual assault victims on college campuses don’t report the assault and that in general, 63% of sexual assaults are not reported to police. It’s heartbreaking that this many people, whether it is a man or woman, are still too uncomfortable or too scared to report this to the police. With the shockingly high percentage that go unreported today, I can only imagine how few were reported when women like the first ones at Yale started attending college.
So what can we actually do? There’s actually a lot that we can do to help reduce the number of sexual harassments. One of the most important things we can do is to not be a bystander, if you see something, say something. Although this one is so simple, sometimes people are afraid to report these incidents or are uneducated as to what to do. You can create a distraction, and/or get the attention of the authorities (this can be police, security guard, bartender). You can also help by simply educating yourself and others about the signs of sexual harassment and abuse and how to protect yourself and others.
If you believe you have experienced or witnessed any sexual abuse or harassment please contact the authorities, trusted adult, or call 800-656-HOPE (4673) to be connected with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area.
Learn more about sexual assault and harassment.
Hey Julia,
I really like that you chose to write about this, because I really don’t think that we talk about it enough in our society. We really have come a long way in women’s rights since 50 years ago like you mentioned but in my opinion we still do have a lot farther to go. With the rate of unreported sexual assaults being as high as they are, we need to start taking away the stigma or shame from speaking up from it so the necessary people get punished. But sadly, this is easier said then done.
This also got me thinking of how we almost always overlook or don’t realize that there are cases where females sexually harass males, and I think it would be interesting to find statistics of how often that goes unreported as well.
I thought it was a great idea to talk about this topic. I think that sexual harassment and harassment in general often goes unnnoticed because the vicitms of these situations are frightended by what their abuser might do. I think it is way past the time where we get over the stigma surrounding harassment because it really is nothing to be ashamed of and is something that needs to be heard so we start to treat it as the important issue it is. I love all the statistics that you used throughout your blog as well, they really strengthened your argument. I like that you focused on women, but I think that it is also important to notice that sexual abuse also happens to males. Although most automatically assume that women are always the victim we also have to realize that men are victims of it as well and it would be interesting to find some statistics about the male side of this issue.
Hey Julia! I loved your blog! I could tell that you put a lot of time into research into this topic and you really presented a detailed picture of one of the most prevalent social movements of our decade. It’s sad how for females (and males), sexual harassment is such a stressor. No one should fear for their safety when simply walking down the street. I love how you started off the article with a meme as it most definitely got my attention. I also enjoyed the Yale anecdote as it really showed me how much of an issue sexual harassment has been and still is.
Like Emily mentioned, I think one big step in combating this issue is reducing the stigma as I know how difficult it can be to speak about something that is seen as shameful or taboo. However, the #metoo movement is obviously a step in the right direction and hopefully, future generations won’t have to worry about this nearly as much as we do.