Venny’s blog post- the Issue of Sexual Harassment in Public Transportation

I’m still not sure what I’m going to do my project on. At first I thought about general stuff like climate change or something to do with oceans, but then I got a wonderful first hand experience of good old sexual harassment. So I thought that it would be the perfect subject for this class. 

I was coming home from my friend’s house in the evening. I needed to take a bus and a tram to get home and while on the bus, an older man sat next to me. He first started to talk about general stuff, like how his day was. When he was done talking about himself he started to ask about me. I did what I always do in those situations, I answered as vaguely as I could and just tried to get away from the situation. But when the one-sided conversation started to get a sexual tone and when he got closer and got all touchy, I got up fastly on the next stop and luckily he didn’t follow me. 

There are a lot of underlying causes that contribute to this problem. A big factor is how our society is shaped around gender. There is a power imbalance between me and that man. Also there are societal norms, which make some people think that harassment isn’t wrong. 

There are many shareholders regarding this issue. Passengers are primary stakeholders as they are directly affected by the safety and comfort levels within public transportation. Public transportation agencies and operators are responsible for the overall safety and security of passengers. They play a crucial role in implementing and enforcing policies, providing training for staff, and ensuring that appropriate security measures are in place to prevent and respond to incidents of harassment. Also the police are important stakeholders, they are responsible for enforcing laws, investigating reported incidents, and ensuring that legal measures are in place to hold perpetrators accountable.