Fear for All Women: European women’s fear of harassment and aggression in public spaces

Abstract

This work is based on the inequality that women suffer in public spaces, with fear being a constant in their lives. Women must learn to live to accept a limited and constrained existence. Based on this approach, this research establishes a European description and comparison of the insecurities, fears, or concerns expressed by women facing the risk of aggression/harassment, and the prevalence of sexual harassment in public spaces. For this, we used the Survey on Violence Against Women in the European Union (EU; 2012). In the fieldwork, we performed a factorial analysis, as well as a logistic regression analysis between the sociodemographic variables (age, educational level, income, and habitat) and prevalence of physical or virtual sexual harassment. In general, while European women report that they have suffered harassment to a considerable extent, there are even greater concerns or fear of abuse or aggression in public spaces. A fundamental fact is that there is a significant correlation between the prevalence of harassment and per capita income, such that those countries with the highest economic development show a higher incidence of harassment towards women. Similarly, European countries with higher standards of equality show a greater incidence and prevention against the risk of harassment or aggression, particularly among young women. Some results suggest that more than half of Europeans avoid certain spaces or places for fear of being attacked. The main European powers, which have higher standards of equality, report the most harmful instances of behavior against women in public spaces in relation to harassment or fear. The results obtained prompt the conclusion that socialization towards European women is both victimizing and discriminatory.

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