The hollaback! international street harassment survey, led by Dr. Beth Livingston, analyzed responses from 16,607 individuals, highlighting that 88% of Canadian women report their first experience with street harassment occurred before age 17. The study revealed that verbal and nonverbal harassment are most common, with significant behavioral impacts reported, such as changes in transport and avoidance of public spaces. Additionally, the majority of incidents occur without bystander intervention, and women often feel uncomfortable discussing their experiences with authority figures.

1. Hollaback! International Street
Harassment Survey Project
Analyses provided by:
Dr. Beth Livingston
Research Assistants Maria Grillo and
Rebecca Paluch
Property of Beth A. Livingston, Cornell University.
Do not disseminate without permission of Dr. Livingston and Hollaback.org

2. Procedure
• Beth Livingston (assistant professor, Cornell ILR School) created the survey
– Hollaback!’s constant feedback and guidance
– Guidance of prior research on street (or stranger) harassment and sexual harassment in the workplace.
– Survey uploaded to the survey hosting site (provided by Cornell) called Qualtrics.
• Surveys were translated, where appropriate, by volunteers from various Hollaback! sites
– Guided by instructions to ensure the internal validity of the questionnaire
– Feedback was given by Hollaback! leadership and site leaders throughout the process to make sure we were
using wording that was as broadly applicable as possible
– Reviewed by Cornell’s institutional review board and found to be exempt because no identifying information
was collected from respondents.
• Site leaders given their own links to the survey in the languages they preferred.
– They had 2 months (October 15-December 15, 2014)
– Could send the links out however they wished
– Survey was not randomly distributed to a random sample of participants, and thus cannot be generalized in
the same was as, say, a Gallup survey
– Demographic data was collective so that o a profile of respondents could be created
• Updates were sent to each site periodically to try to encourage them to reach a sample size of 100
respondents per site.
– There were 16,607 respondents across all 42 sites that participated.
– The survey was translated into 13 languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Bosnian, Croatian,
Hindi, Polish, Czech, Nepali, Marathi, and German
•

3. CANADA
SAMPLE SIZE = 620

4. Canadian Women under age 40: Age
AGE AT FIRST
HARASSMENT
Percentage of
respondents
<10 10.8
11-12 25.2
13-14 33.9
15-16 18.4
17-20 10.5
21-25 1.1
over 25 0.2

5. Canadian Women under age 40:
Summaries
• 88% of Canadian women report their first experience with street
harassment before age 17. In fact, 70% report their first experience before
age 15. A full 15% report that it happened before they turned 10.
• Verbal and nonverbal harassment are the most commonly experienced
types of harassment, and few women report not experiencing this
behavior at all during the past year.
• Having a person expose him/herself to you is the least common
harassment experience, with 83% of women having no experience with
this at all.
• Over half of Canadian women have been groped or fondled in the past
year.
• 79% have been followed by a man or group of men in a way that made
them feel unsafe during the past year
– 17% of Canadian women have experienced this frightening behavior more
than 5 times.

6. Canadian Women under age 40:
Locations
• Has this happened in certain location/under certain
circumstances, during past year?
Expose Grope/Fondle Follow Verbal Nonverbal
On the street 3.9 9.7 47.6 52.1 51.9
In a park 2.1 1.8 10.6 15.2 16.8
On public transit 4.8 15.3 18.2 24.4 34.4
In a public transit station 1.9 4.7 13.9 18.1 22.9
On way to work 1.5 3.7 13.9 22.6 24.2
On way to school 1.3 2.4 10.5 13.4 16
On way to social event 2.4 11.3 18.7 28.5 30.3
on a college campus 1 2.9 5.6 9.8 11.1
IN a well lit area 3.9 14.8 25.6 35.6 37.7
In a pooly lit area 3.4 16.8 24.4 26.1 28.4
In a city 12.3 28.9 47.9 55.3 56
In a suburb/outside of a city 2.4 6.1 18.9 21 22.6
In a manufacturing area 0 1 3.7 4 6
In a retail/sales/shopping area 1.8 10.3 16.6 21.1 27.3
Around a lot of other people 6 27.7 24.8 41.8 42.9
Alone, or isolated 3.5 7.6 19.5 20.8 22.4
Late at night 5.8 21 31 35.8 38.1
During the day 6.9 19.5 29.7 43.2 43.7
While dressed up 3.7 17.6 23.2 34.5 35.6
While dressed "down" or casually 6.8 24 40.8 48.9 46.8

7. Canadian Women under age 40:
Emotions
• Street harassment of any kind seems to result in strong feelings of anger--
but fear and anxiety are primarily rooted in the actions of groping, and
following/stalking.
• Groping/fondling and exposure are the most likely to lead to feelings of
depression and fondling/groping to low self esteem.
• A common refrain is that women secretly find harassment to be flattering.
– Although some women do seem to feel this way, it is a negligible amount
• Some women report feeling no emotional reactions to street harassment,
although they are the minority.
• It is important to distinguish between trends (i.e., street harassment has
strong effects on negative emotions) and possibilities/outliers (i.e., some
women will indeed feel nothing at all, or even flattered, by it)

8. Canadian Women under age 40:
Behavioral impact
% of respondents
saying "yes"
Leave/resign your job? 8.35
Not attend/skip work? 13.94
Refuse or not accept work/job? 16.71
Miss school or skip classes? 22.49
Be late to school or work? 39.71
Have to or want to move homes? 32.02
Have to or want to move cities? 24.63
Not go out to a social outing or event (bar, restaurant, movies, etc.)? 58.19
Not go out at night? 67.81
Have to move cities? 5.96
Feel distracted at school or work? 63.08
Change your behavior/relationship with friends or loved ones? 39.22
Choose to take a different route home or to your destination? 84.18
Choose to take different transportation (e.g., call a cab instead of walking/taking the bus)? 77.34
Choose not to show public affection with a partner or significant other? 22.47
Take self-defense classes (formally or on your own) to protect yourself? 36.05
Carry a weapon? 38.92
Change what you were wearing? 58.58
Avoid a city or area? 72.24
Change changed the time you left an event or location? 63.88
Join a support network either online or in person? 14.07
Call the police or security? 29.21
Not socialize or interacte with a person? 69.34
Avoid an area of your town or city specifically? 71.95

9. Canadian Women under age 40:
Behavioral impact
• Over half of respondents noted that they changed their
clothing, took a different route or transportation,
completely avoided an area, changed the time they left an
event, or avoided socializing because of street harassment
(or the fear of it).
• Some (a small amount) of respondents even noted that
they resigned a job or skipped work because of
harassment.
• 25% of respondents had to even move cities because of
street harassment.
• About 40% of respondents noted that they were late to
school or work, which could have major economic effects
on both business performance and on personal finances.

10. Canadian Women under age 40:
Bystanders and communication
• The majority of street harassment (71%) occurs
without witnesses willing to help.
– When people do stop to help, it is as likely to make
victims feel better as to feel nothing or worse.
– In fact, in general, bystanders often--regardless of
their intentions to help--make things worse.
• Women are more likely to talk to friends than
anyone else about their harassment experiences.
• Women feel least comfortable talking to
individuals with power or status positions about
their experiences.

11. Canadian women under age 40:
General demographic notes
• Relatively educated (62% with a college
degree or higher)
• Moderately economically secure and engaged
with street harassment (60.6% have visited
Hollaback! online)
• See spreadsheet for more demographics