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@A.gis, Magazineon Ending Violence AgainstWomen 1981 I STREEF #frRfrSS{tlEtff

by Micaeladi Leonardo Sexualharassment in public placeshas received sharedstrategies for avoidingharassment and for little attentionin feministliterature since the first fightingback. Still,street harassnrent remains our- outpouringof ;agein the late 60'sand early70's, sideof a feministanalysis for manyof us. Weare at the myriadforms of maleoppression. Then, we unsympathetic,unwilling to see male domination protestedthe experienceof operatingin the situation,where we coulclbe wom- swingingdown the street feelinggood and en'sadvocates as a matter of courseif it werea rap- smilingat peopleand- being hassledlike a ed prostitute,a batteredwife, or a secretarywho'd pieceof meatin return.' sleptwith her maleboss. And Vetstreet harassmenr In the wake of our repeateddiscoveries of the ex- is pervasive,perhaps more pervasive,than these tent and damageto women of rape,battery, child other expressionsof violenceagainst women. lt abuseand harassmentin the worl

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scene,then leavesthe interactionfeeling like a sur- and the woman doing when the incident takes vivor of a car wrecl<.I havepracticed each of these place? Whoare they? And why is it happeningin kindsof emotion-workon myself. the first place? "Patriarchy"is a catch,allanswer; Our cultureexpects women to be friendly.Flight we need to look more closelyat the specificand attendantsand waitressesare supposedto remain changingpolitical economy of street harassment. friendly when pawed;secretaries, when pinched and The analysisof streetharassment which follows runningfor the boss'scoffee; women on the street, flows from two observations:1 ) that streetharass. when "hassledlike a pieceof meat." ln eachof ment has greatly increasedover the past decade; thesecases, friendliness is the resultof the woman's and 2\ that men of all racesand classesengage in it. emotion-work,her acquiescenceto herfear of being Theseobservations are based on my personalexperi- fired, b.einghurt - to her fear of men. ence,and on the experiencesof dozensof women Street harassmentre-establishes and underlines with whom I discussedthe issu-e.No controlled the patriarchalculture's definition of us as obiects. studiesof streetharassment exist.o We do not freelyobserve the world becausewe re- By separatingout the componentsof a singlein- mainthe objectsof maleobservation. I haveexperi- stanceof slreetharassment we sansee it moreclear- encedharassment when I wasacting asan observer - ly. First,why is the harasserin a publicplace? stoppingto look at autumnleaves, children playing, -he is drivingby, in the courseof work or recreation; a buildingfacade. The letdownof a robot maskin- -he is working (construction,doorman, security vites male oppression.But, just as with rape,the guard,delivery); opposite also applies;men experiencethe robot -he is hangingout, loungingon apartmentsteps, mask as defiance of patriarchal control. A man standingon a corner,outside a store,in a park, swervedtoward me while passingon a Washington sittingin a parkedcar; street to hiss,"You're pretty enough to smile a -he is walking past in the courseof work, recrea- little." Anotherran after me on TelegraphAvenue tion, lunchhour, etc. in Berkeleyscreaming "Stuck up!" An acquaint- Why is the victim on the street? anceran an informaltest of my theory by walking -she is working (courier,construction, mail deliv- past a particularconstruction site in two very dif- ery, etc) | rl ferent ways: hunchedover looking at the ground, -she is commutingto or from work on foot or on and upright, looking straight ahead and walking public transportation; briskly. Shewas left alone in the first posture,and -she isshopping; besetby howlsin the second.) -she is jogging or playing tennis or engagedin The foregoing characterizationof street harass- somekind of physicalactivity; ment abstractsfrom reality. But what are the man -she is takinga wdk. 53 irl iit, Jl in the number of women concernedwith being physicallyfit. This changepfaces women outdoors, in areasthey wouldn't travelotherwise, at all times / of day and night. Not only running,but simply commuting to and from dance, self-defenseor exerciseclasses, tennis courts or softball fields placeswomen outdoors more often. Harassment (not to mention rape and murder) of women runnershappens so often that the first threebool

56 action Ritual: Essays On Face-To-Face Behavior. Anchor the collective rather than individual effects,of harassment Books: GardenCity, New York, 1967. and on men rather than women. I believethat it,is crucial that we focus on individual women's emotion management 4Hochschild, Arlie Russell, "Emotion Work Feeling in responseto patriarchal interactfons,so that we mav cor- Rules, and Social Structure," American Journal of Sociolo- lectively decide to work on our emotions in new and liber- sy. 8513, 1979. / ating ways, SJoan Cassellalso makes this point in "Externalities of Change: Deferenceand Demeanor in Gontemporary Femi: nism" in Human Organization,33il , 1974. I would like to thonk Dione Conner, Laureen 64, I finirh"d this article, Ms. publisheda short article Frante, Susan Gol, Heidi Hortmonn, Noncy McDon. by Cheryl Benardand Edit Schlaffer on "man on the street" ald, Roberto Spalter-Roth, and IUilloughby for (May pp, John 1981, 18-19). These feminist scholarsinterview- their help with this orticle. ed harassersin Vienna on their motivation and rationales for verbally assaulting women. Benard and Schlaffer share my general perspectiveon the effect of street harassment, Micaela di Leonardo is an anthropologist living in but in their article give no senseof the historical changesin liloshingion, D.C. She worked from 1977-1979 capitalismand patriarchy that may have affectedthe levels with the Bay Areo WomenAgoinst Rope in Berhe- For and types of harassment. example, they interviewed 1e1,,California, ond is a member of the D,C. Areq migrant workers but did not note that the presenceof SoutheasternEuropean workers in Northwestern Europe is Feminist Allionce and the D.C. Area Feminist a relativelynew phenomenon, They alsofocus primarily on Alliance Lobor Task Force.

The IMPACT of Sexual llarassnrent on theJots A Profile of the Experiencesof 92 Women by peggyCrull of the WorkingWomen'p Institute I Summary: WorkingWomen's lnstitute mailed a resulted. Almost all of the respondentssuffered questionnaireto women who had writtenletters in- sometype of emotionalstress and about two-thirds dicatingthey had experiencedsexual harassment on had physicalreactions. In effect,sexual harassment the job. The 92 questionnairesthat werereturned seriouslydamaged the ability of thesewomen to providea descriptionof the sexualharassment ex- earna living. This studysuggests that sexualharass- perienceand its economic impact on the women ment acts as a significantbarrier to the economic who encounterit. The respondentswere primarily advancementof all womenin the workforce. clericaland serviceworkers in low-payingjobs who lntroduction live in all partsof the country andwork in a variety of settings. The incidents which promptedthe Over the lastfour years women to write involvedintrusive, uninvited, and WorkingWomen's Insti- tute has becomea nationallyrecognized often repeatedsexual overtures. More often than research/ resourcefactioncenter focusing the of not, the harasserswere older menwith the powerto on issue sexualharassment on the the hire and fire the women. Attempts to stop the ha- lob. The issueand ln- stitute'swork havereceived widespread rassmentwere generallyuseless and in many cases attentionin nationaland local media. a result from led to someform of retaliation. Twenty-fourper- As women acrossthe United write the cent of the womenwere fired as a resultof the ha- States lnstitute. Many of them ask for concreteassistance to rassment,and 42% were pressured into resigning.ln on how han- dle a sexualharassment problem. a largemajority of the casesthe situationdiminish- Othersare simply seekinga sympathetic ed the woman'sability to do her job by diverting audienceto listen to their story. her attention from her work and underminingher Still otherssee their lettersas a contribu- tion self-confidence.Health problemssimilar to those to the effort to eliminatesexual harassment. causedby other types of occupationalstress often After readingscores of these letters we noticed patternswhich helpedto explainhow sexualharass- ment undermineswomen's ability to take their Copyright@1979, Working Women's Institute, Inc. rightful place in the labor force and earna decent

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