We’ve heard and read a lot recently about sexual assaults on women in public places but many of the people I speak to locally think that the problems of sexual harassment found in big cities are largely absent in our area. This is incorrect because recently published research shows that eight in ten women say they have been harassed in public at one time or another but 90 per cent do not report it to the police because they believe it would not be pursued. This is shameful and we need to try and address this problem urgently.

Politicians come up with all kinds of supposed “solutions” but it seems to me that they ignore an obvious one. Parents and teachers should encourage boys to ask their mothers, sisters and female relatives their own experiences of sexual harassment in public. I think a lot of boys will be shocked, upset and genuinely surprised when they hear the answers. Being sexually harassed is horrible and degrading and none of us deserve to be treated in this way.

Hopefully they will become more aware of their own behaviour and more critical of other boys who behave inappropriately. In other words, there is a good chance they will become part of the solution to this pervasive problem.

Gill Spooner

Women’s Officer, South West Herts Labour Constituency