CULTURE | ADVOCACY & POLICY | UNITED KINGDOM | VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
Street harassment in the UK: How far does new legislation go to protect women from harassment?
WORDS BY LARA GIBBS | LARA@THEIWI.ORG | 29 MAY 2024
geography of fear
/jēˈäɡrəfē , əv , fir/
noun
The gendered construction of public space as not safe for women. From a young age women we are socialised into a restricted use of public space based on their parents’ fears for their safety, as well as their lived experience and the experience of other women.
On 18th September 2023, new legislation came into effect to protect against sex-based harassment. The recent Protection from Sex-based Harassment in Public Act 2023 aims to crack down on sexual harassment in public spaces, making it easier to prosecute and bringing harsher penalties. According to a survey conducted by UN Women UK in 2021, 71% of women have experienced sexual harassment in a public place. When sexual harassment in public is so prevalent, how far can legislation really go to protect women?
The Protection from Sex-based Harassment in Public Act 2023 builds on the Public Order Act of 1986. Before this, it was not a specific offence to harass someone on the grounds of their sex. The Public Order Act 1986 states that a person is guilty if they have intention to cause a victim harassment, alarm or distress by using “threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour”. The 2023 Act makes the aforementioned crime an offence on the account of sex, or the sex presumed by the perpetrator. On conviction, the person guilty of the offence can either be fined, given a prison sentence of up to two years, or both. While some are optimistic about the new law, others fear it will do little to combat sex-based harassment due to the need for a wider societal change.
British Geographer, Gill Valentine coined the term ‘geography of fear’, defining it as “the gendered construction of public space as not safe for women”. Valentine argues that from a young age as women we are “socialised into a restricted use of public space” based on our parents’ fears for our safety, as well as our lived experience and the experience of other women. While it is important to be aware of safety, the onus remains on women to keep ourselves safe. As women we are told not to be out alone after a certain time, to cover up, to send our location to our friends in case anything happens to us, the list goes on. She goes on to say that a “woman's perception of her safety in her local neighbourhood is therefore strongly related to how well she knows and feels at ease with both her social and physical surroundings.” In a city like London when there is not a strong sense of community, women’s perception of safety is often fragile. Valentine suggests that women’s restricted use of public space, which allows male dominance to prevail, has become a spatial expression of patriarchy. When public spaces, particularly late at night, are so deeply associated with fear for women, how far can legislation actually change our perception of public safety as women?
Legislation is not enough. While it may act as a deterrent and reinforces that street harassment is not acceptable, misogyny in the form of harassment will persist without a societal change. Our Streets Now is an organisation founded upon the vision to end street harassment against women and marginalised genders. They argue that education and awareness must exist alongside political and legislative change. The organisation focuses on sharing personal stories, alongside statistics on public sexual harassment to raise awareness on the issue. In their work on psychological effects of public sexual harassment, they found it can lead to women fearing an escalation to violence.
Despite the 2023 legislation, it can be difficult to track down the perpetrator. Further, because sexual harassment is such a regular occurrence for many women, combined with distrust in the police, women have lost faith in law enforcement, detering them from reporting. We must go beyond legislation and educate men on the impact of harassment on women, encouraging them to call out such behaviour. This would help facilitate a culture in which street harassment is deemed unacceptable. However, despite increasing awareness of street harassment in the political sphere, public spaces continue to be male dominated, while traumatic experiences of harassment and assault carry on informing women’s use of public spaces.