Across the world, women face real and perceived threats of gender-based violence, assault, and harassment (GBVAH) while traveling. Studies have repeatedly shown that sexual harassment on public transport is widespread in both the developed and developing parts of the world.
Over time, several bottom-up strategies have emerged to protect female public transport passengers from sexual harassment. Although effective in terms of managing personal risks, these strategies come at a high cost to personal freedom and access to opportunities for the women who employ them. They should be regarded as a response to the problem, not a solution to it.
The simple act of ‘stepping outside’ the residential quarters is often linked to fear – from a young age, girls are taught to avoid walking on certain streets after certain hours; being alone in certain areas/neighbourhoods; wearing certain types of clothing, the ignoring of which might lead to incidences of GBVAH, and effectively it becoming the victim’s fault.
This report elaborates on the results of the EMPOWER project. Starting with an overview of the prevalence of sexual harassment in public transport in our research countries and beyond. It then introduces the SHE CAN Model, the EMPOWER approach to data collection and the SHE CAN Tool as well as offers conclusions on how users can best exploit the Tool across their organisations.
This report elaborates on the type and extent of GBVAH found in urban areas and the consistency of these findings across the globe. It also sets out to facilitate the first step in tackling sexual harassment, which is understanding how this issue and public transport intersect, the variations in different contexts, and steps to address it.
