There’s been a statistic about women passed around on social media recently.  This statistic states that 97% of women face some form or sexaul harassment or assault in their lifetime.  This number is incredibly high and some people have tried to debunk the statistic for a few different reasons.  The statistic comes from a recent United Nations Study of Women in the UK.  The study surveyed 1,089 women ages 18-24 on their experience with public sexual harassment and it was published on march 10.  Many people said that the age range was too small, the sample size was too small, and that because the study only interviewed women from the UK that it wasn’t a valid statistic in other parts of the world.  

While these are all valid criticisms of the study I think that they miss the bigger picture.  This study as well as the social media trend that came with it highlight that this is a problem that most women face.  I personally don’t know a single woman who doesn’t have at least one story about a time a man made her uncomfortable or unsafe in public because they were harassing her.  The surge of social media posts in the wake of this study also serve to prove that though the study may have been small and only interviewed women from the UK many women around the world face public sexual harassment and deal with it every day.  Though there was an uproar of women sharing their stories, there was also an uproar of people who disagreed with the statistic coming forward to share their views on the topic.  Many boys used the phrase “not all men” to combat this statistic while many women shot back with “but it’s 3% away from being all women”.  Some boys even went so far as to make it sound like a game or something they should complete by getting to 100% and commented things like “were almost there”, and “only 3% left to go”.  

In conclusion even though the study itself may have some inconsistencies I believe that it has highlighted a larger societal issue that continues to be brought up by women over and over again.  This larger societal issue is that women have to deal with sexaul harrassment and assault on a very regular basis and that it has created trauma that almost our entire gender can relate to.  For years women have tried to bring this issue to light and for years people have heard us but ignored our call for a solution.  Maybe this time the issue will stick and we can finally start getting a long awaited solution to this huge problem.