Collective Action Success! BareMinerals Ditches Sexist, Pro-Street Harassment Campaign

Posted on May 2, 2013 by renee

This weekend, DC resident Sara Alcid was appalled and outraged when she went to cheer on friends at the Nike Women’s Marathon in DC and saw groups of men holding sexist signs commenting on the women runner’s looks and clothing. Sara found out that the signs were a part of BareMinerals by Bare Escentuals’ “Go Bare” campaign and tour, and DC was the tour’s first stop. Next step: Sara partnered with CASS and Holly Kearl of Stop Street Harassment (SSH) to launch a Change.org petition for BareMinerals to stop promoting street harassment and objectifying women runners.

Photos of BareMinerals’ #GoBare campaign at the April 28th Nike Women’s Marathon in DC. Credit: Sara Alcid

Street harassment is no joke. According to research conducted by Kearl, 99 percent of women experience street harassment in the form of sexualy explicit comments, sexist remarks, groping, leering, stalking, public masturbation and assault. What’s more, Kearl found that 46 percent of women said they exercised at a gym because of fear of harassment and assault while outdoors.

We’re HAPPY to report that within just a few hours of launching the petition yesterday morning, BareMinerals contacted Sara and CASS and SSH to let us know that they will NOT be using the signs again. We held a phone call with BareMinerals later yesterday evening, and we were pleased with their genuine regret at having promoted sexual harassment and trivialized women runners.

The following sums up their response:

“First and foremost, we want to say how incredibly sorry we are that we caused any offense. Our messages were meant to motivate and support but you’ve made us realize that not everybody would find these messages motivational or supportive. It’s ironic because you’re exactly the kind of women that we are inspired by because you’re fighting the good fight and standing up for women. Our mission is to make a positive difference in women’s lives and to inspire women to be their very best. So to know that this is not what was translated on the street really pains us. We take your concerns so seriously, and we really believe this is a learning opportunity for our brand. Please rest assured that these signs will not be used going forward on the Go Bare tour. We’re glad we’re having this chance to learn.”

We want to take a moment to thank the BareMinerals team for showing a commitment to women’s concerns, particularly those regarding their freedom from street harassment and sexual objectification. In an act of showing BareMinerals and other companies like it that women respond positively to marketing decisions that value them, we encourage you to send a tweet:

Dear @BareMinerals: Thank you for listening to women’s concerns & taking #streetharassment seriously! bit.ly/18uq73x #fem2 #endSH

Most importantly, we want to send a huge thanks to everyone who helped tweet and petition to send our message. Your support and activism are the very core of our mission, which holds that — together — we can collectively prevent street harassment (including a culture that normalizes it) and create safe spaces for all.

Thanks, CASS community! Working together to prevent public sexual harassment.

CASS staff recognized by WIN’s 2013 Young Women of Achievement Awards!

Posted on March 4, 2013 by renee

On Thursday, February 27th, CASS was honored to attend the Women’s Information Network’s (WIN) Young Women of Achievement Awards (YWA), in which two of its staff members — co-founder and Executive Director Chai Shenoy and Director of Programs and Policy, Julia Strange — were recognized for their achievements in the field of Service/Nonprofit Advocacy. According to WIN, which was founded in 1989 to support and empower women, the Young Women of Achievement Awards honor talented, up-and-coming young women leaders making a difference in their communities. We couldn’t be more proud of Chai and Julia for their nominations!

We send our congratulations to the 2013 YWA winners and the 40-some remarkable women who were also nominated, including CASS board member, Emily Morrison; former board member & Stop Street Harassment founder, Holly Kearl; and CASS colleague, Jess Solomon. Last but not least, we send a huge thanks to WIN for hosting the empowering event! The energy in the room was electrifying, and we’re grateful to be in the company of so many inspiring activists working so passionately to improve our communities.

DC’s anti-street harassment heroes – all honored at WIN’s 2013 YWA Awards! (l-r) Holly Kearl, Julia Strange, Chai Shenoy, Emily Morrison

(l-r) Chai Shenoy, Co-founder & Executive Director; Renee Davidson, Director of Communications; and Julia Strange, Director of Programs and Policy.

CASS co-founder and Executive Director Chai Shenoy (l) and CASS Director of Programs and Policy, Julia Strange (r) were nominated for WIN’s 2013 Young Women of Achievement Awards.

CASS Update on WMATA anti-harassment efforts

Posted on February 22, 2013 by renee

On Tuesday (2/19), CASS teamed up with Holly Kearl of Stop Street Harassment (SSH) to meet with WMATA’s taskforce on sexual harassment. The meeting was to touch base with WMATA nearly a year after CASS worked with the agency to implement its first-ever anti-harassment campaign.

On Wednesday, we posted SSH’s response to the meeting as told through SSH’s report to the Huariou Commission. We apologize if we gave the impression that we think WMATA has done everything the agency can to address the needs of survivors of public sexual harassment and assault. Here’s our take.

Still pushing to make DC Metro free of public sexual harassment & assault

CASS began working with WMATA in 2012 to implement the agency’s first-ever anti-sexual harassment campaign.

We were pleased to hear progress at Tuesday’s meeting, but we feel that there is much WMATA can still do to address the needs of survivors of public sexual harassment and assault. While we are excited that WMATA is committed to moving forward, we did ask — and are continuing to ask — questions to hold the agency accountable. For example:

Why have trainings for WMATA employees still not been implemented? We realize that these processes are hard, but we must push ahead after a year of hard work.
How can WMATA increase reporting of these crimes knowing that one bad reaction causes several people to remain silent because they think the agency won’t care?
Where are the hot spots? What trends have been identified in the past year, and how can MTP respond to them?

We want to acknowledge WMATA as one of the few transit agencies in the world trying to make public transit safer for all riders, regardless of gender. And for that, we applaud WMATA, particularly Caroline Lukas and Deputy Chief Campbell. Without internal champions on this issue, DC would be like every other transit agency — keeping this crime underground. But, we’re not going to drop the ball.

There is more work to be done, and we’ll be pushing for it. Thank you, CASS community, for holding us accountable to you.

CASS & Stop Street Harassment meet with WMATA on Global Day of Action for Safer Cities!

Posted on February 20, 2013 by renee

Reposted with permission from our friends at Stop Street Harassment.

CASS & Stop Street Harassment met with WMATA as part of the Huairou Commission‘s Global Day of Action (February 19, 2013), called “Delhi and Beyond: Concrete Actions for Safer Cities.” A total of 50 organizations participated in the Global Day of Action, which aimed to help grassroots women and women’s organizations to partner with government authorities and concretely build safer cities. The day was organized by the Huairou Commission, Women in Cities International, Women and Habitat Network Latin America, Jagori, GROOTS International, ICWIF and FEMUM-ALC.

The following is a report submitted by Stop Street Harassment to the Huairou Commission. The actions taken during the day will be presented during the UN Commission on the Status of Women on March 8, 2013.

(l-r) Ben Merrion, Caroline Lukas, Zina Gowan, Renee Davidson, Holly Kearl,Deputy Chief Campbell at the WMATA headquarters in Washington, DC

In February 2012, CASS organized individuals to testify about sexual harassment on the WMATA system during the performance oversight hearing of the transit authority before the DC City Council.This morning, Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS) staff member Renee Davidson and board member Ben Merrion and Stop Street Harassment founder Holly Kearl met with the following key staff at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA): Deputy Chief Campbell, Zina Gowan, employee communications, and Caroline Lukas, who heads the task force on addressing sexual harassment.

Out of those testimonies – and the many stories members of the public submitted to WMATA agreeing that this is a problem – WMATA formed a task force in early March 2012 to address sexual harassment on the system.

This meeting was to touch base nearly a year later to see what has been achieved and to discuss what we can do during the second year to continue to address the issue.

Main achievements this year and goals for next year:

ACHIEVEMENTS

1. New online form for reporting incidents
2. Starting to track all forms of sexual harassment (previously they only tracked harassment that was criminal)
3. A transit-wide PSA campaign
4. An internal awareness campaign among WMATA staff
5. A new law to make it easier to report/prosecute indecent exposure in DC
6. 126 reports of harassment

GOALS

1. An improved online form that can lead to better reporting
2. A second phase of the PSA campaign this summer or fall
3. Training for all WMATA employees
4. More efforts to spread the word about how to report and the importance of reporting.
5. Working with Virginia legislators to pass the same law that passed in DC to make it easier to prosecute indecent exposure. Maryland already had this law before DC.

We are very pleased with the outcome of the meeting and with the continued commitment of WMATA to making the Washington, DC-area public transportation system free from harassment for all its riders.

Stay tuned for more information about the meeting and what DC-area transit riders can do to improve reporting.

Meet Us On The Street: International Anti-Street Harassment Week

Posted on January 9, 2012 by renee

We are super excited to be one of the co-sponsors for Meet Us on the Street: International Anti-Street Harassment Week, which is a program of Stop Street Harassment.

During the third week of March (March 18-24), all the amazing and activists working to hard to fight street harassment and individuals around the world will join forces to collectively raise awareness about street harassment.

In 2011, we collaborated with Holly from Stop Street Harassment to organize community safety audits in honor of the first ever, Anti-Street Harassment day. This year, we are once again joining forces along side of Stop Street Harassment as well as a number of other organizations and individuals to raise awareness about this global epidemic and discuss solutions.

We’ll keep you posted as details become available.

See you on the streets!