Week 17 - Gathering data & generating insights

Over the next few weeks I am going to focus on exploring a variety of data collection methods as a way to draw out more important insights. Once I have a sufficient amount of information gathered I will then look into ways in which I can visualise this data. After a couple of weeks of more in depth research I hope to have a clearer idea of where my final concept is heading.

Data gathering techniques

• User interviews - Create questions around experience of living in these environments.

• Rapid Ethnography - (How) Spend as much time as possible with people relevant to the design topic. Establish their trust in order to visit and/or participate in their natural habitat and witness specific activities. (Why) This is a good way to achieve a deep first hand understanding of habits, rituals, natural language, and meanings around relevant activities and artifacts. (Learn about daily patterns).

• Fly on the wall - (How) Observe and record behaviour within its context, without interfering with people's activities. (Why) It is useful to see what people actually do within real contexts and time frames, rather than accept what they say they did after the fact. (Learn a more true representation of how people act).

• A day in the life - (How) Catalog the activities and contexts that users experience throughout an entire day. (Why) This is a useful way to reveal unanticipated issues inherent in the routines and circumstances people experience daily. (Learn about a wider variety of activities)

• Cross-Cultural Comparison - (How) Use personal or published accounts to reveal differences in behaviours and artifacts between national or other culture groups. (Why) This helps teams to understand various cultural factors and the implications for their projects when designing for unfamiliar or global markets. (Learn about the differences between ages, gender, busy/quiet areas etc).

User Interviews

I have conducted more in depth interviews with the 25 women as a way to get a better understanding of the prevalence of sexual harassment, consequences of harassment, and reasons for not reporting these experiences.

Interview Responses

Q1. What would you define 'sexual harassment' as?

Those interviewed answered: Actions of a sexual nature; anything that makes someone feel uncomfortable/unsafe, intimidated or humiliated and exceeds personal boundaries, including unwanted stares, inappropriate comments, physical contact - touching/ grabbing without consent etc.

Q2. How often do you experience sexual/street harassment?

• Multiple times a week - 4

• Every week - 6

• Every night out - 5

• Often - 5

• Often online/social media - 2

• Not often - 2

• Never - 1

Q3. What was the youngest age you remember experiencing sexual/street harassment? (Give an example)

• 18 - 3 (starting to go out clubbing)

• 16/17 - 3 (later years of school/ getting a job)

• 15 - 5 (boys at school, disco's, getting a job)

• 13 - 5 (wolf-whistled, beeped at)

• 12 - 5 (shouted at by workies)

• 11 or younger - 4 (primary school, forced to kiss, grabbed etc)
  

Q4. What is your worst experience of sexual harassment and how did it make you feel? (That you feel comfortable sharing)

• Verbal abuse/comments about bodies/clothes - 3

• Explicit pictures sent - 1

• Stalked/followed - 2

• Taken somewhere alone in an attempt to sexually harass without witness - 2

• Night club (following/pestering) - 1

• Physical contact (groping) - 8

• Forced/persuaded in an attempt to perform sexual act - 4

• Sexually assaulted - 2

• Raped - 2

These experiences made the women feel disgusted and self conscious, uncomfortable, traumatised, violated, angry, petrified, scared, life changed for the worse, embarrassed, extremely anxious, untrusting, belittled, powerless, betrayed, helpless, out of control, terrified.

Q5. Do you know how to report sexual harassment and have you ever done so?

• Phone the police - 11

• Not sure- 12

• Report to boss/colleague/family/friend - 2

• Yes I have reported - 2

• No I have not reported - 23

Q6. Why do you not report it?

• Not sure who to speak to - 2

• Feel uncomfortable - 1

• Not worth the hassle - 6

• Worried about victim blame - 6

• Doesn't seem serious enough - 8

• Reporting put me off doing again - 2

Q7. What do you think should be done when sexual harassment is reported to the Police? (select those you feel are most important)

• Deal with it with a sense of urgency - 7

• Warning/fine/punishment given to perpetrator - 9

• More help/support given to victims and more info about reporting procedures- 10

• Privacy/confidentiality - 2

Q8. What do you think could be done differently by the Police/local authorities in order to ensure the safety of women and decrease sexual harassment in public spaces?

• Improvements to street lighting/CCTV - 5

• More help and support - 5

• Educate people more about sexual harassment - 10

• More police training on the topic/easier reporting processes - 10

• Perpetrators punished - 5
  

Q9. Where/when do you feel most exposed/vulnerable to sexual harassment?

• Work - 2

• Nights out/clubs/bars - 10

• Walking home alone in dark (Outdoors/streets etc) - 13
  

Q10. To what extent do you think sexual harassment is a matter of concern?

• Huge/extremely/very important matter of concern - 19

• Big/widespread concern - 5

• Not a day to day concern (but it is on nights out) - 1
  

Conversations

(with people who don't experience the problem)

As well as talking with people who are victims of the problem I spoke with people who aren't familiar with the problem of sexual harassment (to the same extent). I was at work on shift with 5 other people who all happened to be male. When asked about what I am studying at uni I felt slightly apprehensive discussing my project with them as it is a controversial topic and I was unsure on how they would react. What I didn't want was for people to roll their eyes and wind me up by calling me a feminist. Once I began to explain the reasons behind why my project was so important to me they began to understand. I wanted to hear things from a different perspective and I was intrigued to find out what men's opinions were on the topic.

Initially I asked them questions relating to sexual harassment, I wanted to find out what they defined sexual harassment as and how often they experienced it. Most of them unsure on the exact definition but assumed it was forced attention including comments and touching etc. When asked how often the experience it the majority said it was something they never experienced. Two mentioned that working in a bar that they have the odd women grab their bum or make an inappropriate comment when drunk. When asked how it made them feel one of them said it did not bother them and that they quite liked the attention. The other said it made them annoyed. It was interesting to hear from a male perspective how they felt as victims of sexual harassment.

What I discovered was if you want people to listen and engage you have to provide them an opportunity to explore the topic and engage before bombarding them with facts and opinions. Generally if something does not affect a person it is harder for them to understand and empathise. Asking questions is a good way to get someone involved in conversation, it is important that people have the opportunity to express their views and opinions before you give your own perspective. Once I had asked them a couple of questions and understood what their current perceptions were I then explained my reasons for researching the prevalence of sexual harassment. Explaining how much of an issue sexual harassment is for women in particular and sharing some of my stories the guys seemed to be pretty shocked at the severity of it. They told me that they were aware that it was a problem but weren't aware of the extent of it and how serious it can be.

Key observations:

• The respondents understand what sexual harassment is defined as but do not differentiate a difference between harassment and assault

• 88% of respondents reported experiencing sexual harassment often

• 76% of the women reported experiencing sexual/street harassment aged 15 years or younger

• 16 of the respondents have been sexually assaulted yet only 4 defined their experience as a form of sexual assault/violence

• Half of the women are unsure on how to report sexual harassment

• Despite all 25 of the respondents having experienced some form of sexual harassment/assault/violence only 2 of them have ever reported it

• Almost two thirds of the women do not report their experiences because they are either worried about victim blame, do not think it is serious enough to report or do not want to deal with the hassle of reporting

• The respondents feel sexual harassment should be dealt with a sense of urgency and there should be punishments given to the perpetrators and more support given to victims

• Women think that one of the most important things that can be done to prevent sexual harassment is to educate people

• The majority of the women feel most vulnerable either out in a club/bar or walking home alone in the dark

• The women think that sexual harassment is a huge matter of concern

• Lack of awareness around the severity of the issue

• If you want someone to listen you need to let them have their say

• Men are also victims of sexual harassment as well however incidents are much fewer and farther between

• There are clear reasons to logically conclude that this is an issue affecting women disproportionately

Key insights:

• Women are trivialising their experiences of sexual assault because they are socialised into a patriarchal culture where sexual violence is normalised.

• Girls characterisations of everyday violence is paralleled by both their assessments that assaultive behaviours are often justified and their understanding of harassment as a normal adolescent right of passage which is why they do not want to report it.

• Victimisation often occurs in situations where the only present witnesses are the victim and the perpetrator making it hard for the victim to speak up.

• It is essential to challenge all forms of gender imbalance and prejudice, no matter how small, in order to tackle the overall problem.

• There is no invisible line beneath which it's just fine to sexually appraise and force unwanted verbal or physical attention on a woman but above which it crosses into abuse.

• Assaultive behaviour is often justified as 'boys will be boys', but allowing those 'minor' transgressions gives license to the more serious ones, and eventually to all-out abuse.

• The structural and ingrained societal elements of gender inequality mean that the problem is deeply complex – certainly not about vilifying men. Nor is it suggesting that all women are victims.

• People are more likely to empathise and listen when you give them the opportunity to have their say because they feel like their opinion is equally valid

• The simple act of sharing stories and raising awareness gives both women and men the strength and the impetus to make changes.

• The sense of solidarity that also comes with sharing stories can make huge difference, because women no longer feel they're standing up to street harassment alone.

Next steps:

• Explore projects that aim to 'prevent' certain issues

• Gather more primary research