I found an organization called WASH while I was looking for solutions to sexual harassment.  The group is Women Against Sexual Harassment. It is made for changing the way men and women think about harassment.  The publish a newsletter called THE WASH RAG with information about the issues in it.  There is a lot of information on the web site.  I hope you check it out.  There are things on why the person started it, how to get help, and there are a few funny jokes too.

I also found an article about women and harassment in the military.  It said that one in seven female soldiers who were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan and later required health care reported being sexually assaulted or harassed.  And that only .7% of male soldiers reported similar experiences. The article talked about how that is unacceptable and that women have been a valuable addition.  It also said that statistics like that turn women away from joining and that is not what should be happening.

I don't know about you but I didn't find this weeks readings very uplifting.  A few of my last posts haven't been that happy either.  But today I was very excited I found this article. It was about a lawsuit involving three female former police detectives.  They won a one million dollar  verdict. It said in 2006 the employees had accused more than a dozen male employees or posting pornography, making lewd remarks and disobeying orders from women.  It made me happy for there to be some sort of punishment for the men's behavior even if it took them 2 years for it to be finished. 

I found a video about harassment in Egypt.  Its called Sexual Harassment on the Streets of Cairo.

Its a pretty short video so it doesn't drag on and on.  It caught my attention because two and a half years ago I went to Cairo for my sixteenth birthday.  Before we went we were talking to different people and reading up on what to do to respect their culture.  Quite a few times we heard to keep our eyes down and to not look at the men.  They said that sexual harassment was a problem.  I was disappointed to hear that this was still a problem.  One thing it said was that " over half of all women living in Egypt experience some form of harassment on a daily basis."

I found an interesting article today.  Women experience more sexual harassment in work groups with male, female balance.  I thought it was interesting because when I thought about it I assumed that a woman would be harassed more if she was the only woman because every man would notice her.  But the article said "There is a lot more opportunity in these groups because you have a lot of men who have contact on a regular basis with a lot of women, and that's going to great more opportunities for sexual harassment.  When women are less represented or when hey are mainly working with other women, there is simply not as much opportunity."  Their studies said that harassment happened when there were either a lot of women or very few women, but the highest numbers was when it was equal.  I just thought it was an interesting article since it proved what I thought wrong.

I was on the website NOW and I found a page that was titled Violence Against Women in the United States.  It says that everyday four women die as a result of domestic violence.  It also said that 132,000 women report that they have been victims of rape.  Also that two to six times women who are raped don't report it. I think that part of preventing violence and rape against women is being informed.  The website also has a page about stopping the violence.  I think that we can all work together and help make people aware of the things that are happening.

Having quite a few of my past articles have been about harassment and bad relationships.  I found a website called Fresh Start.  It helps all kinds of women.  Women going through divorce, don't have a job, live with abuse, have self esteem issues, and many other issues women go through. The place is in Phoenix.  It opened in October of 2002 and is the first self help center for women in the country.  IT was made for women over 18 who want help and information for emotional and financial independence.  One thing that I like about the program was that there is no qualifying criteria to get assistance so any one can get help.