Passing By: Gender and Public Harassment

Catcalls, wolf whistles, verbal slurs, pinches, stalking - virtually every woman has experienced some form of unwanted public attention from men. Off the street, in semi-public places such as restaurants and department stores, women often suffer the insult of being passed over by employees eager to serve men. How pervasive is this behaviour? How dangerous can it be? What, if anything, should be done about it? This text explores the little-examined issue of gender-related public harassment. Based on extensive research, including interviews with nearly 500 mid-western women, it documents the many types of indignity visited on women in public places. As the book demonstrates, these indignities cross all lines of age, class and ethnicity and follow a typical pattern whereby a man or men take advantage of a woman’s momentary or permanent vulnerability. Beyond describing the scope and variety of harassing behaviours, the book also investigates the different ways women and men respond to and interpret them. The book concludes that gender-based public harassment exerts a powerful control over women’s feelings of comfort in towns and communities where they live and work. Further, it defines it as a new category of social problem that shares much in common with sexual harassment and, in its more menacing form, requires legal remedy.