The French government’s High Council for Equality Between Men and Women published a report that reveals a full 100 percent of the 600 women surveyed had experienced at least some form of gender-based sexual harassment in their life while on public transport.
The women originated from Seine-Saint-Denis and Essonne, two suburbs of Paris.
The High Council defined gender-based sexual harassment as “the imposition of any kind of words of behaviour that are intended to create a situation that is intimidating, humiliating, degrading, or offensive”.
The statistic has been highlighted by Attn: writer Laura Donovan who writes of her own experience on Parisian public transport.
“In summer 2009, an older man approached me on the Paris subway and said in English, “I want to sit on your legs.” Assuming he meant to say he wanted my seat, I stood up and offered him my spot. Then he grabbed both of my shoulders and yelled into my face,
“I want to sit on your legs.” That’s when I realized he didn’t care about having a somewhere to plop down on a crowded train. He’d intended to harass me, and a group of grown men watched as he did”.
Minister of Health and Social Affairs Minister Marisol Touraine credited the report as “high quality” and added that she hoped the government would be moved to take action.
Margaux Collet, spokeswoman for Osez Le Féminsme (Dare Feminism) spoke to The Local and said it was time to implement change.
“What we need now is a real response from the government. The public is demanding it,” she said.
A spokeswoman for the High Council, Ernestine Ronai, said that women needed to learn to realize when they were the victims of crime.
“Women don’t know how to put these ordeals on public transport into words,” she said.
“Touching somebody’s buttocks is sexual assault and punishable by five years in prison and a €75,000 fine.”
