Study shows 1 in 5 UK women abused
Print Edition
AT least one in five British women experienced unwanted sexual contact while they were in school, a children’s charity reported yesterday, and of that number, nearly half said the abuse was frequent.
After surveying more than 2,000 women in Britain, Plan UK found that 22 percent had experienced sexual touching, groping, flashing or rape during their school years.
About 60 percent of women who said they were sexually harassed as a child have never reported the incident.
“School should be a completely safe space. When sexual harassment happens in schools, it dramatically reduces girls’ ability to engage in all of their opportunities,” said Lucy Russell, Plan UK’s campaign manager.
“It can deeply affect somebody’s confidence. Obviously it can have serious physical harm, depending on the act, and that means perhaps they’ll start dropping out.”
One in three British women between 18 and 24 said they had experienced unwanted sexual contact as a schoolgirl, while one in 10 women over 65 had similar experiences.
Russell said that including older women in the survey showed that sexual harassment was not a new phenomenon.
“This is behavior girls have been told to expect. They’re told ... you just put up with it.
“It also means that we may have grandmothers and mothers who also haven’t reported what was going on.
“It’s happened for generations, but this is the generation where it needs to stop.”
With the prevalence of digital platforms and mobile messaging apps, Russell said preventing sexual abuse is increasingly difficult.
While the survey didn’t factor in harassment via social media and text messaging, this is a major concern for young girls, she said, as many are being pressured into distributing sexual photos of themselves by peers or boyfriends.
“Being humiliated and embarrassed, and then feeling unsafe is a very regular experience,” she said.
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