Frequency increases anxiety and lowers self-esteem, finds study

According to a study by the Department of Psychology at the UCO in which 245 women participated, 98% of women suffer street harassment and 80% of them experience it on a monthly basis. The research is published in the journal Sex Roles.

Street harassment is one of the forms of Violence Against Women recognized by the UN since 2013. This type of violence involves a series of behaviors directed at women, by one or more unknown men, without communicative intent. These are behaviors featuring a sexual dimension and that seek to degrade women. Despite the adjective “street,” they actually transcend streets, per se, extending to other locations like parks, shopping malls, cinemas and university halls, for example.

Given the scarcity of studies on the subject in Spain, and with the aim of ascertaining the prevalence and frequency of these behaviors, and their impact on the psychological well-being of women, researchers in the Department of Psychology Ana M. Contreras Merino, Naima Z. Farhane Medina and Rosario Castillo Mayén took an “X-ray” of the problem in the country, unifying different types of street harassment in public and semi-public places.

The study, which involved 245 women between the ages of 18 and 61, found high rates of street harassment in the country. “98% of the women surveyed had experienced some type of street harassment in their lives, 80% had experienced it on a monthly basis, and 25.7%, on a daily basis,” explained researcher Naima Farhane.

Regarding the impact that these behaviors can have on women’s lives, researcher Ana Contreras pointed to how “higher levels of anxiety and fear of rape are observed when these experiences of harassment are more frequent. Self-esteem also drops as a result of these experiences.”

“The study specifically asked about anxiety, placing women in situations of harassment to indicate the discomfort they felt in relation to that experience,” explained researcher Rosario Castillo.

Changes in women’s lives and routines to avoid harassment are also indicated in the study, as participants reported that they restricted their own mobility and avoided certain places when they were alone.

In this way, “street harassment emerges as a control mechanism that aggravates women’s subordination. The fact that women use these avoidance strategies restricts public spaces to those who can use them with a certain level of security,” added Farhane.

Thus, the limitations on women’s freedom of movement due to street harassment reflected in the study highlight the importance of this problem, despite the legislative support in the country. As the researchers point out, there is a clash between what happens on the street and regulatory advances, creating a kind of “equality bubble.”

Finally, another issue revealed by the study is that sexism leads to fewer reports of harassment experiences. It shows that, as Contreras explained, “harboring a sexist ideology can prevent one from detecting or remembering these experiences of harassment, which are normalized and understood as part of the normal relationship between women and men.” In contrast, feminist women identified these types of behaviors more readily.

The researchers point to education and the fight against sexism as possible ways to deal with these situations that, as they demonstrate, have a high impact on women’s lives and well-being. In their line of research, they will continue to delve into the subject to identify possible differences based on age, the nature of them, and to explore how women cope with street harassment.