“The gym is the first place that pops into my head,” says Josie Rushin, “I really wanted to go on my own but found it difficult because of the stares. A man in his thirties came up to me, put his hands on my waist and told me I was doing stuff wrong.”
Josie is a footballer, she plays at a high level and knows that she needs to work hard to stay on top of her game. “I was using a rope, and he just came over and said he was a qualified PT and he touched my waist and stomach to adjust me and then let go and just watched.”
Recently, a UN Women UK study found that 93% of full-time students are survivors of sexual harassment. The study says they are disproportionately affected by sexual harassment, compared to other groups of women. Josie’s experiences aren’t unusual, she says: “For so long, I felt I was on my own.” The national outpouring of women revealing their experiences was the point Josie realised it wasn’t just her.
Megan Barlow, 21, is one of Josie’s teammates in the University of Sheffield Women’s Football Club. She too has been a victim of sexual harassment, whilst simply playing the sport she loves.
She says: “There will be times when I am in the park having a kick about or doing a circuit and guys will be like ‘Oh do that again’.
“You don’t want to say anything, it’s just shock. Afterwards, you will ask yourself, why didn’t I say fuck off? But when it’s a big group of lads, it’s intimidating.”
Grace Holdt, 20, is a cross country and long-distance runner at the University Athletics Club. She has had men comment on her running shorts, shout, whistle, slow their cars to her running pace and has even had an egg thrown at her. All whilst she is out training.
“Catcalling is a very very common thing to happen,” Grace says, “You’ll be running down the road and people will slow down and wind down their windows and shout something at you. It’s really scary and it is men. I’ve never been catcalled by a woman.” Grace also says that sometimes, to feel safer, she’ll go running in a group of girls, and still they will get shouted at and commented on.
The UN Women study showed, virtually all young women, aged 18-24, have experienced sexual harassment in some form. Young women are forced to act to protect themselves in order to feel safer in their own communities.
Megan takes her keys out with her, every time she goes for a run. They stay in her pocket or her hand, so she can protect herself. Josie takes a rape alarm with her, whenever she is out on her own. When she’s in the gym, it’s in her bag.
Despite the evidence, many men are still dismissive of women’s problems. Grace says, “People can claim they aren’t the problem when really they are. Open your eyes and be supportive.”
Josie has seen men online claiming that stats about sexual harassment are false, it’s often very difficult for her to deal with. She says, “One of my friends told me one day, not to go online as it wouldn’t be good for me.
“All you’ve got to do is speak to a woman in your life and they will have had an experience with harassment.”
Megan says it’s “very symptomatic of the problem.” It’s difficult, she says, to tell men they are behaving in an unacceptable way. She said: “When you call people out they can react with aggression and defensiveness or get angry.
“Before we can even fix the problem, people need to accept it exists.”
Fixing the problem is a whole other ball game. As Megan puts: “The burden shouldn’t be on [women] to make change, but unfortunately, it is.” She believes children need to be taught, in education, that the behaviours of sexual harassment are unacceptable. Particularly in PE, Megan feels the problem is rife, and that the subjects teachers don’t call it out. She has even seen male PE teachers (who are more likely to specialise in PE than women) just laugh.
“Some men still just need to listen,” says Josie, “and also know when it’s not their place to say their opinion.” One in six men are estimated to experience sexual abuse, compared to nearly all young women. After Sarah Everard’s death, some of Josie’s male friends, who’ve belittled her experiences before, apologised to her. She says: “They would say ‘oh my god, I just never saw it’.”
Young women at our university deal with sexual harassment on a regular basis. All of the girls interviewed for this, admitted the sexual harassment they received is desensitised within their own heads, but only because of the regularity that harassment occurs. It is a scary experience, but for some, that’s not the first emotion they experience. Instead, for Megan, it’s a sense of regret. Regret that she didn’t say anything. Regret that she’s walked home alone or that she’s allowed a friend to walk home alone. For Josie, it’s shock and a wish that she had a voice. The kind of voice that would allow her to tell a stranger in his thirties in the gym, “to fuck off.”