Justice

Twitter Thread About a Woman on a Subway Reveals How Hard it Can be for Women in Public Spaces

April 14th 2017

A twitter thread about one woman's experience on the subway is striking a chord.

Zoe Tillman, a BuzzFeed reporter, told a Twitter story in six parts about an incident she witnessed while riding the metro in Washington, D.C. She alleges in her tweets that this was just a woman on her way to work.

The kicker?

Both women and men reacted to her story with anger and frustration.

And then of course, there was one of these:

Which was shut down with this:

The truth is street harassment exists, and women often have to contend with it.

ATTN: previously reported on a 2015 study by anti-street harassment organization Hollaback! and Cornell University that reported "a whopping 72 percent of women all over the world reported changing their transportation plans as a result of harassment."

The #commutingwhilefemale hashtag, which first popped up on Twitter in the summer of 2016, was filled with tweets about how women dealt with being harassed while on public transportation — or simply walking down the street:

Women are still using the hashtag even today:

This comic, originally posted on Everyday Feminism, sums up being harassed on public transportation, and the potential consequences of your response.

smiling comicAlli Kirkham/Everyday Feminism - everydayfeminism.com

Just another woman trying to get to work.

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