The Government is not taking public sexual harassment seriously, says 40% of UK public
Two fifths (40%) of adults in the UK don’t believe that the government is taking public sexual harassment seriously, according to a revealing new survey from Plan International UK.
Among women the feeling is even greater – with only approximately a third (36%) thinking the government take public sexual harassment seriously, and only a quarter of women (26%) feeling male MPs take it seriously.
The stats have been released to mark International Anti-Street Harassment Week (3-9 April).
Aisling, 14, a Youth Ambassador for Plan International UK, contacted her local MP, Dominic Raab (Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Justice) asking for a meeting to discuss how harassment is being handled at a local and national level. So far she has not been offered the chance to meet with him.
She says: “If you have the power to change this and you don’t do anything, you’re technically saying it’s alright to do it. In my email (to Dominic Raab) I wrote about my personal experiences...and if we met I’d discuss what we could do to change the law and keep people safe. Within minutes I received a stock response, but my request for a meeting was ignored. I’d still like to know if he will meet me."
Like the majority of women and girls in the UK, Aisling has experienced public sexual harassment personally. “I was just walking home from school in my sports kit and this group of middle-aged men just started wolf whistling and calling me over. If they’d started moving, I would have been really scared. It was just me and a couple of other kids walking home. I felt objectified, it wasn’t a nice feeling.”
Today’s findings come almost nine months after the Government promised to review gaps in legislation and consider a new public sexual harassment law as part of its Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy. However, they are yet to make any movement on this, meaning that thousands of girls are being left without legal protection from harassment.
Rose Caldwell, CEO of Plan International UK, says:
“We hope that the government will sit up and take notice of this clear call from the public to pay more attention to the urgent issue of public sexual harassment. Women and girls are facing public sexual harassment every day – they are being followed, shouted at, and groped and exposed to unwanted sexual advances. Enough is enough. We have laws to prevent people from spitting chewing gum on the street, but we have no single piece of legislation to protect girls from public sexual harassment. The government must act now to change this once and for all.”