I wish I was joking about that title, but I'm not.

Yesterday I came across a really interesting article in the UK ’s The Guardian about the backlash against women’s rights, written by Kira Cochrane.  I’ll just highlight a few facts about rape in the UK .

• The rape conviction rate in Britain has fallen from 33% in the 70s to just 5.7% today and not because fewer cases are being reported... in fact there are more reported.
• By 1984, there were 68 rape crisis centers across England and Wales, but today, the number of rape crisis centers is only 38.
• Three of the most important women's charities in the UK, all of which support female victims of violence, have a combined income considerably lower than that of The Donkey Sanctuary, a charity that supports ageing donkeys.
  

These facts are really depressing…a donkey sanctuary? Wow, women are really valued...

In the U.S. it's not much better - only 6% of rapists will go to jail, after accounting for the fact that at least 60% of rapes go unreported.

These stats are surely related to how many people still at least partially blame rape survivors for the rape. Cochrane mentions an Amnesty International poll, conducted in 2005, which found that 26% of respondents thought that a woman was totally or partially responsible for being raped if she was wearing revealing clothing, and 30% thought she was totally or partially responsible if she was drunk. Why should people fund or convict someone who asked to be raped, right...? ha.

So since it's up to us to help survivors and try to end violence against women, here are three things I'm doing to work on these isssues:

1. Volunteering with the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network’s Online Hotline. They are working to have a fully staffed 24 hour Online Hotline by this fall so if you're interested in this, it's a great time to sign up to volunteer! On their site they also have info about how to hook up with your local rape crisis center to volunteer or donate.
   
2. I just signed UNIFEM's violence against women campaign petition. They're trying to collect 1 million signatures.
   
   
3. I’ve recently started a website http://www.stopstreetharassment.com to share tactics, resources, interviews with activists, and research on the street harassment of women. Like rape, far too many people think the woman is to blame for the harassment because of what she's wearing. But really, just being a woman in public puts one at risk of being harassed. Please visit the site and contribute your input - all data will potentially be used in a book based on my master's thesis on street harassment.

Do you all have other suggestions about what to do?

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