Call for f ines to end ‘catcalling’ of women on street
MEN who catcall women on the street should be fined, the Fianna Fáil spokeswoman for children and equality in the Seanad has said.
Senator Erin McGreehan called for the move in light of a survey which found that six in ten young women are regularly victims of harassment on the street.
The new research found that 60% of females under the age of 20 had been subject to catcalling in the previous week.
Senator McGreehan told Newstalk yesterday: ‘The Amárach research, with Maryfield College in Drumcondra, really highlighted that our young girls, our teenagers, our children are being catcalled with sexually explicit comments, and I really do think we need to be able to protect them, and make sure that young girls and women feel safe on our streets.’
The problem should be addressed through ‘awareness, education and legislation’.
‘France and Belgium have done this before and I think we have a big problem here in Ireland,’ she said, adding that legislation could change the way people think about lewd comments, and that ignoring this behaviour could create a ‘domino effect’, leading to a rise in sexual assault and rape.
‘People might start realising that it is not an innocent comment, that it’s not a joke.
‘That the consequences of having that innocent or so-called innocent comment – the unsolicited sexual innuendo – doesn’t make a girl feel good, doesn’t make a girl go home and think, yeah I am great today. It makes one feel unsafe and conscious of themselves; there is a fear of getting physically assaulted and we have seen the talk recently about how unsafe we feel as women on our streets,’ she said.
Noeline Blackwell, CEO of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, said that while introducing such fines would be a step in the right direction, only societal change will truly tackle the issue.
‘Unless a garda actually sees it happening, it will require the victim to make a criminal complaint, which most people don’t want to do,’ she told the Irish Daily Mail.
‘They just want the behaviour to stop. And the stopping of the behaviour is much more down to none of us tolerating it when we see or hear it, and youngsters being educated to understand how disrespectful it is, how unwanted it is and how it can be threatening.’
She said that those best able to call out catcalling are those who witness it. ‘If there are people who say, “stop that because that’s not the right thing to do, you’re not behaving in a decent way”, that’s the kind of thing.’
In 2018, France passed a law against verbal sexual harassment. In the first year of the law, more than 700 men were fined.
Those breaking the law face potential on-the-spot fines of up to €1,500 in certain circumstances, such as if the victim is under 15.
Fianna Fáil Senator Lorraine Clifford-Lee told the Mail she would support a fine.
‘It’s part of the overall culture of violence towards women, which I think we have a problem with. Just look at the amount of women who have been murdered.’