Three-quarters of young women in the Netherlands were sexually intimidated in ina public place the last year and 55% said they don’t feel safe when out at night, a survey among almost 2,000 women by current affairs programme EenVandaag has shown.
It has been offence to harass women on the street since July 1 last year but just 4% of women in the survey had reported being harassed. Most did not bother because they thought what happened would not be taken seriously or because they had no faith in the perpetrator being apprehended.
Six in 10 women said they had experienced wolf-whistling and almost half were subjected to insults. Some 33% of women were followed and nearly a quarter had been grabbed at by men they did not know.
“I was stopped by a group of boys who wouldn’t let me go and got hold of my bike. I was followed by a car at night. There was also a guy who bent over me and talked dirty at the bus station,” one of the women said.
Over half of women share their location on their phones when they go out at night and 41% carry their keys or another object in their hand to use as a weapon.
Several cities, including Arnhem, Rotterdam and Utrecht, have specially trained street wardens who can fine perpetrators. By September last year, the chase for sex pests had resulted in just one prosecution.
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