Girls in Britain say their school uniforms make them targets of sexual harassment
A new survey from Plan International UK has found that to be an all-too-common occurrence
Natasha, 25, remembers how it felt to watch a grown man harass her 10-year-old sister. They were walking home from school in their uniforms when an older man wound his window down and whistled.
“It just made me feel sick,” she told researchers.
“How can you not see they’re children?”
A new survey from Plan International UK has found that to be an all-too-common occurrence. One-third of girls in Britain say they have been sexually harassed while in their school uniforms. (In Britain, nearly all schoolchildren wear uniforms.)
Respondents in the survey reported being catcalled and whistled at. One in seven said they have been followed home while they were in their required attire. Some say men have tried to take pictures up their skirts, leaving them feeling “sexualised and fetishised”.
“I’m not allowed to go out in my uniform any more,” a student named Nyasha, 14, told researchers. “My mum says I look older than I am.”