Being Followed

Seventy-five percent of the 814 female survey respondents* have been followed by an unknown stranger in public. Over 27 percent have been followed at least six times.

“I've been followed in America, in France, in Bosnia, and groped in Croatia...I've been followed in cars and on foot, by men of all shades and probably many diverse backgrounds.”
– 20-29 year-old heterosexual Anglo American in Copenhagen, Denmark

“I was followed by a man for at least six blocks until I ran into a local supermarket.”
– 20-29 year-old heterosexual African American in New York

“In Toronto, in daytime business hours, a man followed me, breathing down my neck - all the way into a shop where I reported to a clerk that I was being followed. I was scared but did not want to show fear so I did not acknowledge his presence or change my pace.”
– 50-59 year-old heterosexual white Dutch woman in the Netherlands

“While driving home from school one night I was followed about 10 miles by another car to my home. I honked my horn which woke my father. As the people in the car ran towards my car my father ran out of the house and scared them away.”
– 50-59 year-old heterosexual Anglo American in Bountiful, Utah

“I was coming home from work one night, and I didn't notice that someone I'd served at work followed me out. He honked at me, going down the freeway, and when I tried to lose him, it wasn't working. I drove to a police station and honked my horn, hoping someone would come out to help me. Before they did, he got out of his car and attacked me. He bashed in the side of my car with a baseball bat, until help came. I still have a restraining order on him after all this time.”
– 30-39 year-old heterosexual native Hawaiian in Phoenix, Arizona

* I conduced an online informal survey in fall 2008 to learn more about people's experiences in public, including street harassment. Nine hundred and sixteen people had useable responses and they came from a range of backgrounds and geographic locations, demonstrating the prevalence of street harassment globally. Survey-takers selected age-range categories from “13-19” through “80 and older;” they represented every major American racial group; they identified as bisexual, gay, heterosexual, lesbian, queer, “other;” and they came from 45 American states, 23 countries, and five continents.