Posted on 04/13/2021
2 min read
If the Covid-19 pandemic has led us to travel less, it has (unfortunately) not put a stop to street harassment. A survey, carried out on the occasion of the international week against street harassment, reveals that nearly one in five women has been the victim of sexual harassment in a public space, despite the health context.
The international week against street harassment, which will end on April 17, aims each year to raise public awareness of this scourge, but also to fight it through tools and training, intended to react, or even intervene, when you are a witness or victim of a situation of harassment in the public space. These are essential keys to putting an end to these situations, which are still present despite the Covid-19 epidemic, which has however led to a decrease in travel through confinements and curfews.
Nearly one in five women claims to have been the victim of sexual harassment in a public space despite this particular context, reveals a survey conducted by L’Oréal Paris with Ipsos in 2021 *. If all age groups are concerned, women under 35 seem particularly affected by this form of harassment (one in three women).
We even notice that the health crisis has amplified the feeling of insecurity felt by women. In the midst of the pandemic, more than four in ten women (41%) say they feel less safe in public spaces, and 47% of them even explain that the mask, which makes it possible to hide the face, contributes to increasing this apprehension. The fact that there are fewer people in the streets and in transport also appears to be a factor of insecurity for more than half of women under the age of 35.
As a result, nearly three-quarters of respondents (71%) now say they avoid certain places and more than six in ten women questioned (61%) do not dress as they would like.
Consult a therapist online
Training to respond to harassment
L’Oréal Paris launched in 2020, in partnership with Hollaback! and the Fondation des Femmes, the Stand Up program against street harassment. This involves raising public awareness, but above all giving them the keys to recognize a situation of street harassment, intervene and deal with it, in particular via the so-called “5D” method, namely “Distract, Delegate, Document, Leading, Dialogue “, five actions to apply to help a victim.
Two kinds of training, free, are provided. The first, fast, allows you to train online in 15 minutes on Standup-international.com/fr/fr. To benefit from more in-depth training, open to all, you must register for the live sessions given by a professional from the Women’s Foundation on the site. Standup-international.com/fr/fr/events.
* This international survey was carried out by L’Oréal Paris with Ipsos, from January 25 to February 9, 2021, with more than 14,000 participants in 14 countries.