Stop Street Harassment: Making Public Places Safe and Welcoming for Women

by Holly Kearl

Overview

Using groundbreaking studies, news stories, and interviews, this book underscores that there will never be gender equity until men stop harassing women in public spaces—and it details strategies for achieving this goal.

Street harassment is generally dismissed as harmless, but in reality, it causes women to feel unsafe in public, at least sometimes. To achieve true gender equality, it must come to an end. Stop Street Harassment: Making Public Places Safe and Welcoming for Women draws on academic studies, informal surveys, news articles, and interviews with activists to explore the practice's definition and prevalence, the societal contexts in which it occurs, and the role of factors such as race and sexual orientation. Perhaps more crucially, the book makes clear how women experience street harassment—how they feel about and respond to it—and the ways it negatively impacts lives.

But understanding is only a beginning. In the second half of the book, readers will find concrete strategies for dealing with street harassers and ways to become involved in working to end this all-too-common violation. Educators, counselors, parents, and other concerned individuals will discover resources for teaching about harassment and modeling behavior that will help prevent harassment incidents.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313384967
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	08/03/2010
Pages:	236
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Holly Kearl is a program manager at the American Association of University Women, a women's equity nonprofit organization in Washington, DC.

What People are Saying About This

Courtney E. Martin

"Whose streets? Out streets! Holly Kearl's new book is the manifesto for a new movement afoot -- one dedicated to making sure that women get to walk around in the world without the constant inconvenience and injustice of street harassment. She not only documents the prevalence of gender-based street harassment -- an unprecendented effort -- but points the way towards liberation."

— Courtney E. Martin, Author of Do it Anyway: The New Generation of Activists and Editor at Feministing.com

Bernice Resnick Sandler

"When I started reading, I remembered a few times I had been harassed on the street, but then other incidents came flooding back. I had almost forgotten the acute discomfort ranging from annoyance to fear and I still try to avoid situations where this might happen. . . . If you're a woman, of if you have women in your life as well as young girls, this is a 'must read' book."

—

Bernice Resnick Sandler, Senior Scholar, Women's Research and Education Institute, Washington, D.C.

Bernice Resnick Sandler

"When I started reading, I remembered a few times I had been harassed on the street, but then other incidents came flooding back. I had almost forgotten the acute discomfort ranging from annoyance to fear and I still try to avoid situations where this might happen. . . . If you're a woman, of if you have women in your life as well as young girls, this is a 'must read' book."
— Bernice Resnick Sandler, Senior Scholar, Women's Research and Education Institute, Washington, D.C.

Courtney E. Martin

"Whose streets? Out streets! Holly Kearl's new book is the manifesto for a new movement afoot -- one dedicated to making sure that women get to walk around in the world without the constant inconvenience and injustice of street harassment. She not only documents the prevalence of gender-based street harassment -- an unprecendented effort -- but points the way towards liberation."

—

Courtney E. Martin, Author of Do it Anyway: The New Generation of Activists and Editor at Feministing.com