Percepciones sobre el acoso sexual callejero en la Universidad de Cuenca, 2015-2016

Abstract

The objective of this research was to understand the perceptions about street harassment of university women who have been victims of this type of violence. This allowed setting out the general guidelines of a proposal from the sexuality education received at the University of Cuenca in order to prevent street harassment, understanding this phenomenon, as a gender violence manifestation that afflicts the Society as a whole. The study was methodologically qualitative and exploratory. The participants were female students from the mentioned institution who claimed to have been victims of street harassment during the academic year 2015-2016. A semi-structured interview was applied to ten of these women who were part of the considered sample. The questions covered three topics: victims' perceptions of street harassment, the phenomenon effects over those victims, and the considered aspects to design a prevention proposal. It was possible to characterize the street harassment experience as a generalized phenomenon that modifies the dynamics and relationships between men and women in several areas. Likewise, it was established the lack of educational initiatives that help to reinforce sexual and gender notions based on inclusion and diversity in the studied population; for this reason, the general guidelines of a proposal that seeks to motivate, prevent and train to the educational actors was designed in this sense.