And all for a very important reason...
2017 was undoubtedly a watershed year for women, from the millions marching for equal rights to the silence breakers who spoke out against sexual assault and harassment, sparking the #MeToo movement and shining a light on the shocking extent of the mistreatment of women.
While we’re only two weeks in, it already looks like 2018 is going the same way, with people of Hollywood spearheading the Time’s Up campaign, calling for an end to the injustices women face on a daily basis.
Progress is undoubtedly being made, but there is still a long way to go, with UK parliament opening an investigation on the sexual harassment of women and girls in public spaces, under the hashtag #StreetHarassment - and they want our help.
Parliament is calling for written submissions of people’s experiences of sexual harassment, to help them further analyse the role of factors from age and ethnicity to sexuality.
‘Following the emergence of widespread allegations in the UK and US about sexual assault and harassment across a wide range of sectors, the Committee held a once off evidence session on women's experiences of everyday sexism in December 2017,’ parliament announced in a statement.
‘The Committee's report, Sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools, made recommendations to Government that have been influential in changing Government policy, including making Relationships and Sex Education compulsory in schools and publishing guidance for schools on how to tackle sexual violence.’
The inquiry briefing continues: ‘The Committee is not focusing on workplaces in this inquiry, although it understands that there are connections between the experiences of women and girls in different areas of life. The Committee recognises that anyone can be a perpetrator or victim of sexual harassment. In this inquiry, however, the focus is on sexual harassment of women and girls and its connections to gender inequality. We are also interested in how age, ethnicity, sexuality and other characteristics affect women's experiences.’
‘We know that sexual harassment can be experienced by anyone,’ explained the committee’s chair Maria Miller. ‘But the evidence shows that it is overwhelmingly a problem that is perpetrated by men and boys against women and girls and forms part of the wider inequalities that women and girls experience - which is why we are focusing on this.’
Written submissions are being accepted until March.
