There is not a woman in Australia that does not leave the house practicing her strategies to avoid street harassment, whether it is changing her route home in the dark or the well-worn practice of walking with keys nervously clenched in a tight fist.
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Too often the issue of harassment can be trivialised, but experiencing this harassment can be crippling.
A recent Ipsos study showed that 78 per cent of Australian women have experienced at least one street harassment situation. The intersectional experience is far worse, with that number skyrocketing to 90 per cent for women from two minorities. As a woman of colour, I have experienced countless experiences of street harassment and racism, and can recall two frightening episodes on public transport that made me question my worth.
I also questioned if I am really truly safe in this world as a Black woman.
Girls' rights charity Plan International Australia began to sound the alarm on this issue in Australia as early as 2016, with youth leaders calling on police, city planners and other authorities to take action for girls' and women's safety.
Plan research across 22 cities globally found that street harassment was the number one safety risk facing girls and young women around the world.
Together with many other brave young people, I worked on Plan's groundbreaking Free to Be and Safer Cities research, which found that street harassment is largely condoned by society with bystanders usually doing just that - standing by. This forces girls and young women to adjust their behaviour to protect themselves.
That is why, together with Plan International Australia and five other inspiring youth advocates, I have thrown my support behind L'Oréal Paris' new Stand Up Against Street Harassment campaign - so that I could help make a difference, to help women feel safer. The first time I was harassed I was waiting for my bus to go home when a man started to speak to me. At first I thought it was just a regular conversation but it soon turned into something overtly sexual - the man talked about how curvy my body was and how people who had my skin tone were beautiful.
The situation got worse when the man got on the same bus as me and all I could think about was that I did not want him to know where I lived. I was fortunate enough I was able to call my mother to come pick me up from the closest bus stop from my home. As I was approaching my stop this man got off the bus with me and said: "Oh, you live in the same estate as me, maybe I can stop by your house and see you." By this point I had chills down my spine.
Years later I was sitting on a train when I witnessed a man being harassed. I made a quick glance at what was taking place and when I made eye contact with the harasser for a split second they turned their attention to me.
When I was approached the harasser touched me and a sense of powerlessness washed over me. The harasser then tried to engage in conversation with me but I didn't look at them. Instead I was looking around the train to see if someone would intervene and tell this person to leave me alone.
But, no. Everyone looked on as if to say "it's none of my business." That same Ipsos survey showed that the majority of Australians said they would intervene when someone was being harassed with almost eight in 10 saying they would step in if someone was hugging or kissing a woman who did not want that to happen. So what happened on my train?
I think that people want to intervene but lack the skills to do so. That is why the Stand Up Against Street Harassment campaign is so important. Stand Up supports bystanders to safely call out street harassment when they see it with solutions-orientated training developed with experts and young people like me with lived experience at Plan International Australia. It teaches allies the "5Ds": distract, delegate, document, direct and delay. When properly used these techniques can help someone who is being harassed without directly confronting the harasser.
When harassment happens it leaves the victim powerless. Now imagine all the women, girls and gender-diverse people who have been stripped of their resilience because of the harassment they suffered. Chances are you have seen it happen: what did you do?
There is a great need for people to become effective bystanders so that those who experience harassment aren't left feeling alone and unsupported.
It is my hope that the Stand Up Against Street Harassment campaign might encourage commuters to stand up with us to harassment wherever they see it.
I often think back to the first time I was harassed on the bus. What if my mother had not answered the phone? Who would have been there to stand up for me? It is not enough to want to intervene, you have to take action, and the first step could be learning the skills to help someone in their moment of need.
- Ruvimbo Togara is a Plan International Australia youth activist and Stand Up trainer.
