HollabackPHILLY Releases Report on Street Harassment in Philly

“I refuse to be denied access to my own city, my hometown, because I am a woman. Sadly, there have been many occasions where I decided I could not participate in public space, I didn’t want to leave myself, because I knew I would be alone, I would be street harassed, I would be demeaned, humiliated, objectified.”

This is just one of the many responses found in HollbackPHILLY‘s State of Our Streets report, published last week. In the report, HollabackPHILLY looks to dismiss the myth that street harassment is a non-issue that only affects certain subgroups of the population or only in certain areas of Philadelphia. Instead, they illustrate the scope and severity of street harassment and its negative impact.

“The high level of response to our online survey demonstrates that street harassment is a significant issue that people care about in Philly,” said Anna Kegler, deputy director of HollabackPHILLY. “The data collected helps us get a sense of who is experiencing street harassment, how often, where, what forms the harassment takes, and very importantly, how it affects the people being harassed.”

The online survey received responses from 416 Philadelphians: 85 respondents identified as LGBTQ, 364 respondents identified as women, 28 respondents identified as men, and 6 respondents identified as another gender. The age range of the respondents were pretty diverse: 27% were between 18 and 23 years old, 45% were between 24 and 29 years old, 16% were between 30 and 35 years old, 12% were over 36 years old.

In addition, the survey showed that a significant amount of harassment occurs while women are walking to/from work or while running errands. It also showed how harassment is common throughout the entire city.

A significant 91% responded that they did not report the harassment after it had happened, some stating that they no idea reporting it was an option.  Even more said they didn’t report it because they had bad memories of not being supported when they attempted to report in the past.

“The survey responses show that street harassment happens all over the city, which we hope will be eye-opening because we are often asked about which areas are the worst for street harassment, or if there are any ‘hot spots,’ ” Kegler said. “Also, the survey highlights that street harassment has a significant effect on people. The overwhelming response we got to the question ‘how does it make you feel?’ was angry/frustrated, humiliated, and fearful of going out alone.”

HollabackPHILLY also met with city council on November 7th to present data from the survey, user submissions of street harassment, and live testimony of peoples’ experiences with street harassment in Philadelphia. Attendees were city council members (Councilman Johnson, Councilman Kenney, and Councilman Jones) as well as community members.

“The hearing focused on the need for a comprehensive community safety audit in Philadelphia, for which we are requesting City Council support to connect with community groups. Next steps are continuing our dialogue with city council members and community organizations as we plan the safety audit,” Kegler said. “We need as many diverse organizations involved as possible to cover the various neighborhoods in Philadelphia, while also incorporating the experiences and perspectives of marginalized groups throughout the city.”

They published a document, Testimony for City Council Hearing, detailing pre-submissions of the speakers from the hearing and those attending the hearing used the hashtag #endSH to document it as it happened:

Future plans for HollabackPHILLY include a joint effort with FAAN Mail on the educational component to ending street harassment. In the spring, they will be working a public transit ad campaign in the spring that expands upon last year’s campaign and working on a computer-based choose-your-own-adventure comic book, an extension of the comic book they published this year which will be used in school and community workshops.

For more information on HollabackPHILLY, visit http://philly.ihollaback.org/