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.

Between the 1970s & early 2000s I’ve had 5 significant incidences from 5 different men, 2 of which shocked me, 3 of which were very frightening and of 2 of those I feared for my life. I was pretty, naive & vulnerable when young, and unfortunate when older. All of these came from unwanted sexual attention. Now I’m old enough to be relatively unnoticed and I’m glad.

@TheHardySeal Yes, I think that many teenagers/young women were very naive back then, I certainly was.

Most days between ages of 12 and 19. 1990s and early 2000s.

Honestly this amount of stories confirms my wish that pepper spray were legal to carry.

Otoh spraying could escalate the situation (plus could backfire on you or innocent people nearby) but otoh if there were at least the threat of something direct & immediate for creepy men, it would surely put them off.

I was a teen through the first half of the 90s and remember men in vans shouting stuff and also my friend and I being flashed at as we left our local railway station. In my late teen to mid 20s I remember getting groped and grabbed in nightclubs. Each time I was groped/grabbed the perpetrators would stand there laughing. I don't remember getting harassed much after that but I do remember being touched in the street in broad daylight one day. Two men walking towards me taking up a lot of the pavement, as I walked past them I felt a hand run down the side of my body. When I looked at him he just carried on walking as though it hadn’t happened.

Last summer my daughter (then 10) had a car stop on the other side of the road and a bloke who looked like he was in his 30s just ogling her. She’ d walked on ahead of me and was waiting at the corner of the road when this car stopped on the opposite side. I shouted something to my daughter as I got closer but was watching him, he then looked at me and drove off I found it really unsettling. Luckily she had her back to him and didn’t see him.

As a teen or maybe 20 year old, had my bum grabbed in broad daylight more than once by men I didn't know.

I’m 28 and would get wolf whistled and cat called between the ages of 13-18. When I started clubbing aged 16-20 was fairly common to get your arse grabbed etc. I remember there being a campaign against groping at indie gigs.
It did stop in my 20s so I often wondered whether a) western sexuality is more deep rooted in paedophilia than we care to admit, b) I got fat and ugly or c) attitudes towards women are changing for the better. I think it’s a mix of all three.

You have just reminded me of something Ben Elton. He said he was talking to a friend about walking past a pub in the evening and people (men) being outside with their drinks and wondering, "Are they going to say something? Are they going to have a go at me? Is one going to get physical?"

His friend said, "So a bit like being a woman then?"

This would have been late 1980s.

I grew up in NY and it was nonstop from when I was about 13. I remember getting followed home from work a few times, getting grabbed in a club, having to have security help me leave a bar safely... all sorts from annoying to actually frightening and some things I'd rather not talk about.

i have a 13 year old daughter now who is very young for her age but I've seen men looking at her (gross gross gross). She's had some comments from older boys at school too (a little bit less gross maybe as at least they're age appropriate? And some of them were pretty harmless - just a compliment and asking her out. She couldn't be less interested though!). She started self defense classes last week as I want her to at least have a chance of defending herself if she ends up in some of the situations I did at her age.

I have a son as well and I'm hoping that I teach him better than this. It's horrible that women still expect this nonsense in 2026.

I think there is an element of getting away with it as well because men clearly do find women in their 20s highly attractive. The horrible cretins know that younger and more vulnerable women are less likely to call them out or take any action against them.

First sexually harassed at the age of 8 or so, bEcoming more regular from age 10 and regular from 13. This was me in the 80s. As far as I know it’s only happened to my 15 yr old dd a couple of times, but quite frankly we’ve given her a better upbringing so she doesn’t feel the need to run out of the house quite as often. I don’t doubt it would be more common if she was out more.

Yes, lots. I was a teen in late 90s-early 00s.
The first time I was made aware of it, where it was aggressive, and I know 100% it was directed at me (I was the only person at the rural bus stop) was when I was 11, and waiting for the school bus to secondary.
There was an army training area nearby, so there were regularly trucks and cars going by with young men in them. I can only assume they egged each other on, as there was no mistaking me for being any older(I had only just turned 11!).
At the time, I remember not minding it, because in my mind, they were ‘men’, so I felt kinda mature. Now of course, I’m bloody shocked at how wrong and inappropriate it was!
Also, compared to what was happening at school at the time - where the sexual harassment had progressed to physical by male classmates(skirts being lifted up, arse grabbed, etc), so the wolf whistles and lewd suggestions seemed mild to me!
Ending on a positive note, I changed to a much nicer school after a few months, so there was no more of that harassment for a long time after that😄

Re the paedophilia, despite what some people always bring up on these threads, it's never been standard for much older men to be married off to 13-14 yos.
I asked ChatGPT (I know...but if you ask for sources- and check they are real- it can be quite helpful). It argued that most of the time men who catcall really young girls are doing it more as a power play/dominance thing than from attraction. I've seen this elsewhere too.

How do they not see how creepy it is? Imagine if a gay man was caught catcalling 13yo boys & he defended himself by saying it was about power not attraction!That rightly wouldn't be accepted- but if directed at girls apparently to a worrying minority of men it's fine.

You’re so lucky it stopped at 40!

I agree that it's to do with a power dynamic.

The large hairy bloke (reminiscent of the wrestler Giant Haystacks) who lunged at me when I was eleven had a pal with him and started to laugh when I screamed and banged on the door of the telephone box that my mum was in.

When I was 17, a fat, sleazy, middle-aged police sergeant came into the first aid room (where I was making the half-time tea for the first-aiders and police attending the local stock cars) and said "I've got a pain at the top o ma leg, hen. Will you have a look at it for me?"

The young constable with him was obviously embarrassed.

Yeah constantly in the 90s. Even in my school uniform. Regularly would have your bum pinched and not be sure who did it. Men sitting too close on the buss and stroking your leg etc etc.

building sites not so much a problem in my experience.

now I’ve had 3 kids and gained a lot of weight and look haggered I don’t get it. Never had it when I have my kids with me. I’ve seen peeves eye up my pre teen dd who’s budding with puberty (turning their head to watch her walk past last summer when in shorts) but they haven’t said anything. I’ve had it post kids when I’ve gone for a meal out or something without the kids and without a partner ie walking alone.

I’m in my 30s and still get harassed I was told this would stop because the pervs would think I was to old. its always the hissing or making comments when I pass rather than whistles although someone recently whistled at me on my road.

I got my backside grabbed when I was on the Waverley Steps escalade, unable to move because I was hemmed in on either side. The culprits appeared to be two businessmen in their 60s.

I saw them once I got to the top and turned round. I chased after the and yelled. Just as well I didn't catch them, I guess.

Yes it is completely commonplace I am afraid. With the notable exception that builders have made big leaps forward in clearing up their reputation.

I have been groped - happened all the time in clubs in the 90s as a teen and 00s in my twenties. A friend’s stepfather tried worse once - I was mid-teens. Seen men masturbating on two occasions - once on a train and once in a car outside my work (yes, it’s a school). The extent of sexual violence is simply not understood or discussed. Women are not safe unless they take many precautions - which shouldn’t be necessary.

Disgusting. Really pathetic when older men show they aren't behaving any better than the stereotypical young, dumb hooligan who harasses women in public.

Agree.

I meant to add that I was 58 at the time.

[Yes, that was supposed to be 'escalator'.]

Mid 40s and yes, I was sexually harassed often as a teen. I was followed, whistled at, commented on, grabbed, touched. It was constant and awful. I hated it. It is possibly one of the best things about being old. I love being invisible.

I was a teen in the eighties. I had men grab my breast as they passed, that happened about three times. I had three jobs where I was sexually harassed. Older men trying it on, unwanted touching. Plenty of remarks in the street. I honestly don’t think my dd has experienced anything like this. She does have older blokes looking at her though. I was with her recently when this bloke of about 40 working on a neighbour’s house was staring at her. It was really creepy. She’s 19.

Oh yes, and worse. Men masturbating in front of me. I had almost forgotten. Once I was followed and the man pretended we were lovers having a tiff and he spat at me. There was more but I don't want to remember it.

That's terrible. 🫂 I can't believe people don't try to intervene more, especially when it's minors being harassed.