Sexual harassment of women in the night-time economy is causing “shame”, “anger” and “fear” on nights out

The findings of a recently published paper, Fear, injustice, anger and shame in the night-time economy: Women’s responses to unwanted sexual intrusions, suggest that nowhere near enough is being done for women’s safety in the night-time economy.

The inquiry into women’s emotional responses to sexual harassment, or unwanted sexual intrusions (USI), found that women do not feel safe and free to engage equally with men in the night-time economy because of the impact of unwanted sexual intrusions.

The national study, commissioned by Shout-Up! – a campaign to tackle sexual harassment in the night-time economy – was conducted by Dr. Ruth Lewis and Dr. Amanda McBride of Northumbria University; and sought to understand women’s emotional responses to sexual harassment.

The key findings include:

• 44% of women who expressed an emotion feel fear as a result of unwanted sexual intrusions on a night out.
• 23% of women who expressed an emotion cited anger and 12% shame as the predominant emotions felt as a result of unwanted sexual intrusions on a night out.
• Many engage in safety work, which includes leaving venues after an incident, reporting incidents to venue staff, avoiding certain areas or venues or deciding not to engage in the night-time economy at all.

Dr. Lewis said: “Women’s emotional responses to USI have rarely been researched but can provide us with a deeper understanding of the social dynamics of power and status. What was clear from our respondents was that women’s fear – the predominant emotion suggested by 44% of respondents who expressed an emotion – indicates a shared sense that they anticipate further harm when encountering USIs, which leads them to modify their behaviour and engage in ‘safety work’, restricting their freedom to engage equally in the night-time economy.”

“These intrusions are considered commonplace on a night out,” Shout-Up! project manager Dawn Bowman of Rape Crisis Tyneside and Northumberland said, “they’re often portrayed and accepted as an inevitable part of going out – brushed off as ‘banter’ or ‘just a laugh.’ But our research repeatedly finds that the consequence of this is harming women and making them think twice about going to certain bars, pubs and clubs.”

The second most prevalent feeling offered by 23% of respondents was anger, followed by shame (12%), which suggests stigma is still alive and well in our society.

Dr. McBride said: “Shame and stigma go hand-in-hand to police women’s behaviour and have always been a fundamental aspect of the maintenance of men’s violence. Traditionally, women have been held responsible for their own victimisation, and have been advised to adjust their own behaviour to avoid harassment and violence, but this research suggests the tide is beginning to turn.

“These responses show there is a contemporary shift towards reframing USI as an injustice and holding those who sexually intrude to account. There has therefore never been a greater opportunity to improve the UK’s social responses to USI in the night-time economy, and to work together to prevent it, so everyone can enjoy themselves – safely and equally.”

Alongside this paper examining the emotional impact of sexual harassment on women across the country, local polling by Shout-Up! earlier this year showed 75% of women in Devon and 78% of women in Tyne & Wear had experienced sexual harassment on a night out.

The report sets out a number of solutions that are needed to ensure women can engage equally with men in the night-time economy:

1. Support: women should not be left to respond to USI alone because their own emotional reactions, and their assessment of the risk of exacerbated violence, mean they are not free to respond as they might wish. Venues must create environments where women can get help quickly.

2. Knowledge: all staff working in the night-time (as bar staff and bouncers, for example) should be trained to understand USI, how it manifests and its impacts so that they can be alert to USI and confident about how to respond to it. This training should include consideration of the range and complexity of women’s emotional responses to USI.

3. Change: venues should be expected to meet agreed standards around safety from USI as they would for other health and safety led initiatives and should be expected to publicly demonstrate their commitment to a zero-tolerance approach.

“We must stop making women responsible for not only avoiding situations in which they could be harassed but then also dealing with the consequences of harassment after the fact, so Shout-Up! addresses one part of that.” concludes Dawn Bowman, of Rape Crisis Tyneside & Northumberland who lead the Shout-Up! initiative across the UK.

“Venues have a responsibility; we wouldn’t accept a venue that didn’t meet fire safety regulations and nor should we accept venues ignoring the personal safety of its patrons. Shout-Up! trains venue staff to make spaces safer and tackle harassment swiftly and decisively. We know that women will stay longer and spend more in venues where they feel safe, so there isn’t just a moral obligation here, there’s a direct financial benefit to our towns and cities, if everyone is safe.”

EDITORS NOTES

This was a joint piece of work between Rape Crisis Tyneside and Northumberland’s Shout-Up! Campaign and Northumbria University

About Shout-Up!

Shout-Up! UK has been operating in the UK since 2017, and started in Newcastle upon Tyne by Rape Crisis Tyneside and Northumberland in partnership with Newcastle City Council. It is a bystander intervention training and skills development programme for night-time economy venues. Since 2017 thousands of night-time economy workers in Tyne & Wear, Devon and Northamptonshire have been trained to understand the impact of sexual harassment and know how to spot and defuse incidents before they escalate. shoutup.org

About Northumbria University

University of the Year 2022 (Times Higher Education Awards)

Northumbria is a research-intensive university that unlocks potential for all, changing lives regionally, nationally and internationally. Two thirds of Northumbria’s undergraduate students come from the North East region and go into employment in the region when they graduate, demonstrating Northumbria’s significant contribution to social mobility and levelling up in the North East of England. Find out more about us at www.northumbria.ac.uk

Dr. Ruth Lewis is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Sciences, Northumbria University. Her research over more than three decades has focused on diverse forms of gender-based violence, including domestic violence, homicide, sexual harassment, and digital forms of abuse and she has published widely on these topics. In addition, she been involved in various kinds of activism, including helping to run domestic violence organisations, to organise conferences and ‘gatherings’ for practitioners, activists, and scholars, and to provide training about GBV.

Dr. Amanda McBride is a Lecturer in the Department of Social Work, Education and Community Well-being, Northumbria University. Her research focuses on the role of gender in our social worlds, particularly in the night-time economy and in the lives of children and young people.