65% of Women Have Been Harassed on Street

A new survey offers some alarming stats about what women endure on the streets of America: It finds that 65% of them have experienced harassment of some sort, Mother Jones reports. Some 41% of women were physically harassed, a category that includes being flashed, fondled, or followed. The report from Stop Street Harassment also found that people of color and LGBT people of both genders were more likely to be harassed than white or straight people. More than half of victims were harassed by age 17, but for LGBT people, that figure increased to 70%.

“There is a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding about what street harassment is," the group's founder tells the Washington Post. "A lot of people think of the stereotype of a woman in a short skirt walking by a construction site, when it’s so much more than that." At the Guardian, Jessica Valenti writes about the various strategies being employed to fight the problem, but "whatever the method, something needs to be done." It's "not just for equality," she writes, "but because, one day, I'd like my daughter to take the subway to school." The survey follows in the wake of the #YesAllWomen campaign, sparked by the UC Santa Barbara shooting. (More harassment stories.)