Whistling, yelling: two in three young women experience street intimidation

Two in three young women (aged 12-25) have been harassed on the street between 2020 and 2021. This is reported by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), which has investigated street intimidation nationwide for the first time. Half of the girls and women were unwanted whistles on the street. In addition, a quarter was sometimes run after or chased.

Participants in the study could indicate whether they had experienced street harassment in the previous 12 months. Young women between the ages of 18 and 21 experienced this the most. But teenagers between the ages of 14 and 18 were also victims; 70 percent of them say they have been harassed on the street.

Unsafe and anxious

Young women are most often confronted with whistling, hissing or yelling. A third of women who were hissed or whistled at felt unsafe or scared at the time of the incident. Of the women who were chased or chased, 85 percent experienced feelings of fear and insecurity.

Men also have to deal with street intimidation, according to the study. One in three of boys and men between the ages of 12 and 25 will be intimidated on the street in 2020 and/or 2021. Nagging is the most common: about one in five boys and men experience this at some point, 39 percent of them become irritated or angry.

Deodorant and keys

The study also shows what young women do when they are harassed in the street. A majority (64 percent) ignores it. They also sometimes look for company or call someone (37 percent). One in five women takes a ‘defense weapon’, such as keys, deodorant or pepper spray.

Also, a majority of men ignore it when they have to deal with street harassment. About a fifth of them laughs about it, addresses the perpetrator(s) or reacts negatively or angrily.

In 2017, women in Amsterdam talked about their experience of harassment on the street: “Whore, why don’t you tell me?”

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