In today’s society, 65% of all women and 25% of all men have experienced some form of street harassment, one of the many forms of sexual harassment, at some point in their lives, a statistic according to the Huffpost. 65% of ALL women and 25% of ALL men. And the scariest part is that, according to RAINN, 82% of all sexual harassment victims under the age of 18 years old, were female. Young women can’t even walk home alone without the fear of someone sexually harassing them. The Gardian states that a survey finds 97% of women from ages 18 to 24, in the UK, have been sexually harassed, 96% of those who took the survey never reported the sexual harassment, and 45% said that if they were too report it that it would not change anything. And finally in an article by USA Today it states that, women (28%) were less likely than men (45%) to believe that their own sexual harassers were going to be held accountable for their action. That last statistic is what is going wrong.

Sexual harassers need to be held accountable for their actions or there will never be an end to sexual harassment. Sexual harassment includes sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment. According to the Huffpost, a 2008 study of college women found that street harassment added significantly to and/or caused self-objectification, depression, eating disorders, anxiety, and a harder time focusing in school. An article by Huffpost states that 66% of women had to change the way they dressed to avoid sexual harassment or change an outfit that they were wearing to avoid it as well. Women should have to worry about sexual harassment and eventually have to change themselves to avoid it as well. Nor should have to deal with what it will put them through after experiencing the sexual harassment. And in an article by NPR it shows that 76% of women have been verbally harassed, 51% of women have been unwelcomingly sexually touched, 41% of women have experienced cyber-sexual harassment, 34% of women have been physically followed, 30% of women have experienced unwanted genital flashing, and finally that 27% of women have been sexually harassed. If sexual harassers are held accountable for their actions of sexual harassment we may see a decrease in these numbers and percentages, and eventually put a stop to sexual harassment in general.

Overall, sexual harassment has been proven to affect a persons health, a persons appearence, a persons freedom to do things on their own and more just because they fear of being sexually harassed by a stranger. Sexual harassers need to be stopped and held accountable for their actions of sexual harassment so we can see a decrease in these number and percentages and finally be able to put an end to sexual harassment overall.