To ask how many women have either been sexually harassed in the street in the teenager or have a daughter who has?

[Carla786]

For context I'm Gen Z. I live in a very quiet neighbourhood & through my teens was never harassed. There's lots of building works in my area often but builders have always been fine & so has everyone else. I've never witnessed anyone else my age being harassed either (nor adult women). Some of my friends are the same, some unfortunately not (most don't live in my area)

However, I know this is not typical. I've read so much on here about people being harassed in school uniform, having daughters harassed etc. How common is this? Surveys show pretty high results too...

Was it always like this? Has it got worse or better? I've read some arguments it was worse in 70s-80s, others that online misogyny & porn has made harassment of teens worse.

So many times as a teen in the 90’s. On the bus, in the street, walking past building sites, in clubs.

Well not literally 100%, I haven't been (I'm 20 FWIW) and nor have several of my friends. But sadly probably close to 100% over most UK women..

Builders are much better that they used to be, perhaps because people would complain now.
As a teenager I was sexually harassed by a government employee in a government building on stage while presenting my work, microphone on, an audience of hundreds didn’t care. The harassment of young women was quite normalised and even seen as a compliment to some extent; certainly my parents saw it that way.

Yes, the whole building site thing has improved now. It used to be almost compulsory for men to hang off scaffolding and comment on your body or what they'd like to do, or various insults.
In daylight, when you were on your way to work or a hospital appointment or whatever.

Yes, it's stopped from builders now because they'll get fired. Thank goodness. You used to have to steel yourself to walk past.

I remember building work near where I worked in my first job (2005ish) and going the long way round so I didn't have to walk past them.

I was harassed as a teen pretty regularly. My DD only started experiencing it after moving from our small town to a large city for uni.

I suspect the fact that our town is small enough that everyone know each other protected her rather than anything g else as I see little evidence that men think better of women now than they did in the 90.

My mum lived in the same area growing up in the 70s & 80s and was also never harassed. I'm wondering how rare this is : it's horrible so many women & girls can't walk around without this...

Teenager in the 90's, and yes more times i can count.
Some Examples -

Being in the first year of secondary school , being in uniform and a man shouting i wonder if her pussy is as sweet as her face, and his friends laughing and joining in.

Working in stables at thirteen and hearing comments from stable owner about how good i am at grinding on that saddle and how my boyfriend is a lucky man... i hadn't even kissed a boy at that age.

Being flashed at in a park in summer holidays.

Being asked out by the guy who worked in the chip shop when i was about 13-14, he then started driving and sitting outside the school gates and sending letters to my house, he was in his 20's

Being groped on the dance floor in clubs

Standing at the bar in a pub and someone squeezed up behind me and tried to stick his hand down the front out my trousers.

My boss when i was a saturday shop girl constantly doing the hands on waist to squeeze past.

Being told i had fuck me eyes at 15 by a friends dad

@APatternGrammar ah, yes. That's what we were told. Take whistling and catcalling as a compliment. Or it's your fault in some way.
That happened so often "you'd hate it if it stopped!'

Horrible. Thank goodness that has at least improved. Men in general clearly have not, though!

I would say, very rare.

I was a noughties teen although the looks started when I was about nine, the comments followed at about 11. Got beeped at yesterday in the street at 37, seemingly men feel confident to objectify women regardless of how old or young they are. My mum used to call them out on it when we were out together, would literally say loudly ‘what did you say? She’s 12 years old you pervert’ at the time I was mortified but now I am right there with her!

I work in the building industry and (at least my company and our subcontractors) things have changed enormously. We have dedicated training and ‘banter’ is taken seriously - we are not afraid to sack people. I have noticed millennials and Gen Z men are not afraid to call out disgusting behaviour, where as some of the older generations would just go along with it. It’s just a different attitude for the younger generations, they work alongside women, often work for women and see them as equals.

I’m in my 50’s. It started at 9 years old for me. I’ve been catcalled, grabbed/slapped on the bottom, been subjected to indecent exposure five times, grabbed on the breast, grabbed between the legs by an older boy at school. Locked in a school cloakroom (age 9) and kissed by a teacher.

As an adult I had my drink spiked by a colleague’s husband on a work night out - I went to the police. My boss made a joke of it and then terminated my contract.

I also had an old man say to my 4 year old daughter, “Little girls like you were put on this earth to tempt men like me.” Another time the same man got in our bus and put his hand on my daughter’s thigh. Obviously I shouted at him.

I really hope my teenaged daughter isn’t subjected to the same.

Regularly harassed in my late teens and early twenties with whistles and name calling and I was never a "looker", just female.

One man followed me to my workplace and, despite me crossing the road several times as he was too close, inappropriately touched me. I was too embarrassed about what had happened to say anything.

I do remember one time I was with my then boyfriend when it happened. We agreed to ignore it as a friend's boyfriend had been punched for trying to intervene.

It probably stopped once I hit my thirties.

Building sites were probably the only situation where there's really a way to do something about cat calling. If there's a sign up, with an employer's logo, then there's someone to complain to. All those random men on the street, on public transport though, who or what would we be reporting - just a random guy, on a random street.

@Furlane that's the most noticeable improvement in my lifetime.

Unbelievable this was so common...

My grandmother (in her 20s in the 1950s) has told me she saw wolf-whistling from builders as complimentary but she wouldn't have seen catcalling that way, or anything else.

I was a teen in the 2000s. Clearly I am invisible cause I've never experienced any harassment. Not a peep. Grew up rural, now live in a city and work in construction. I've experienced sexism twice in my career - once from a woman and once from a man. But for 36 years on this earth, that's not bad!

One thing i will say regarding men making horrid comments from vans and passing cars, is that it happened the most often while i was in school uniform, so obviously a child

I would not say I have been sexually harassed in the UK. Beeped at and a few comments in the street maybe, but I now I am in my 50s I miss that😅

I've seen that comment a lot...how many of these perves are out there? Very disturbing.

I used to all the time, daily, when I was younger. Not any more, for which I am very grateful. The upside of middle-age is becoming invisible to men.

At 20, I wouldn’t have had the knowledge or the language to recognise half of what happened as sexual harassment, though that is exactly what it was. Sexually suggestive “jokes” from a boss that you were expected to laugh at to prove you were a good sport, comments about your body from boys at school, a “cheeky” grope on a dance floor, the pressure to sit on someone’s lap because refusing would make you “uptight”. I could go on for days.

Sexual harassment is not just men in hard hats shouting for you to get your tits out.

Yes, I was harassed as a teen.

Yes my daughters have been harassed. My youngest was 11 the first time.

I'm not sure that much has changed.