Demand for Safe Space: Avoiding Harassment and Complying with Norms

Kondylis, Florence, Legovini, Arianna, Vyborny, Kate, Zwager, Astrid Maria Theresia, Cardoso De Andrade, Luiza
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Florence Kondylis and Kate Vyborny

No 9269, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: This paper crowdsources information on ~22,000 train rides undertaken by 357 women commuters in Rio de Janeiro to study sexual harassment in the public space and its effects on demand for a women-reserved space. Women in the public space experience harassment on average once a week and randomly tasking them to ride in the reserved space reduces harassment by 50%. A revealed preference experiment shows that demand for the reserved space is heterogeneous, with top-tercile users making up 80% of the demand. These high-level us ers experience half of the harassment in our sample. The authors find that perceptions of norms around the reserved space may limit women’s agency. Data on commuters’ attitudes show over half men and women commuters associate women in the public space with more sexual openness; women who perceive this attitude to be the prevailing norm are 79% more likely to report using the reserved space.

Keywords: Transport in Urban Areas; Urban Transport; Gender and Development; Crime and Society; Transport Services; Labor Markets (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-06-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lam, nep-tre and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Demand for “Safe Space”: Avoiding harassment and complying with norms (2025)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9269

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