Sexual harassment in public places of Pakistan is a social problem. In Pakistan, a good number of studies have been conducted on sexual harassment of women; however, they are based in educational institutes and the workplace settings. This research examined the gender and city-wise difference among the victims of sexual harassment. The sample was 452 victims (197 men and 255 women) with age ranging from 16 to 40 (M = 22.29, SD = 3.83) collected from different public places of three major cities of Pakistan including Islamabad, Karachi, and Lahore. The results indicated that women fall victims of sexual harassment more as compared to men. Results also indicated that men are the major perpetrators of committing sexual harassment. This study also reinforces the idea that men also experienced sexual harassment in public places of Pakistan and further research is needed to explore the experiences of sexual harassment.

Sexual Harassment in the Public Places of Pakistan: Gender of Perpetrators, Gender Differences and City Differences Among Victims

This study is aimed to discuss the manifestations of street harassment among women university students of Lahore. The initial phase of the study involved conducting semi-structured interviews. For this purpose, 20 women university students were interviewed and 19 items were generated. A list of 19 items was given to experts to assess content validity. After removing repetitive statements, 15 item scale was retained and validated by experts. The final 15 item scale was administered to 150 female participants. Factor analysis showed significant KMO value and Bartlett’s test of sphericity which indicated a significant correlation between the items with a few exceptions of weak loadings. Items 12 and 13 showed weak loadings, so these items were discarded and a 13 item scale was retained. Three-factor solutions were suggested through Principle Component Analysis via oblimin rotation and labeled as Behavioral, Verbal, and Eve Teasing. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was further done on a sample of 380 participants to confirm the factors obtained via Exploratory Factor Analysis which overall showed a strong construct validity of the scale and model fit after removal of three items. The final retained version of the scale consisted of 12 items. To assess the convergent validity of the indigenously developed scale, the Sexual Harassment Experience Questionnaire (Kamal & Tariq, 1998) was used as it assessed a similar construct. The correlation coefficient of the two scales was .49 (p < .01). Cronbach alpha value of the developed scale was .82 suggesting a strong inter-item correlation. There are myriad interventions on which the study sheds light.

Development of Street Harassment Scale for Women in Universities

The debate in acknowledging street harassment as an existing social problem renders research necessary on the topic. Street harassment is said to occur when it takes place in a public setting and is initiated by a stranger. Through this correlation research, we aimed to establish the relationship between experiencing street harassment and fear of victimization. A positive correlation between the experience of street harassment and fear of victimization was hypothesized and a positive correlation between street harassment and negative reaction to harassment was also hypothesized. Additionally, the most recurring type of public harassing behaviors was identified as well. Two self report questionnaires were administered; A gender based harassment scale assessing the frequency of 8 harassing behaviors which ranged on a likert scale from 0 (never) to 4 (almost always) and a modified version of The Fear of Crime survey measuring fear of victimization. These questionnaires were administered to a sample of 250 females recruited via convenient sampling technique that had experienced street harassment previously. Percentages, mode and Pearson’s Product correlation were used to statistically analyze data. Results showed a significant, weak positive correlation between street harassment and fear of victimization (r=.216, p<0.01) and a moderate positive correlation between experiencing street harassment and negative reaction towards harassment (r=.404, p<0.01). The most frequent harassing behavior was being stared in a manner that made the victims uncomfortable with 98% of participants experiencing it, followed by 83.5% of the participants experiencing non-verbal sounds. Through this research, we were able to conclude street harassment does have negative implications for women.

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Neelam Naz

Papers

Experiencing street harassment and fear of victimization