#97 Percent

Following the recent murder of Sarah Everard, the entire globe was overwhelmed not only with sorrow but also rage. The 33-year old marketing executive was walking home from a friend’s house on March 3rd when she mysteriously disappeared. She resided in the Brixton Hill area in South London, which was only about 2 miles from her friend’s house near Clapham Common Park. She was initially declared as missing but just a little over a week later on March 11th, her remains were found over 50 miles away in woodland near Ashford, Kent. Along with the news of her brutal death, what struck many was the fact that she was wearing a bright green jacket and was on the phone with her boyfriend for 15 minutes. Wearing bright clothing and staying on the phone with someone are common precautionary measures that one would usually take when wanting to stay safe while walking home alone at night, so the fact that she was still murdered brought many to the realization that there really isn’t anything you could do to completely protect yourself. This appalled the nation, especially women, who are typically the more targeted ones of such a crime. 

“That could’ve been me,” is what many women were feeling upon hearing this news. This story is not unique. A multitude of women across the country have been victims of kidnapping and murder. As these recent events have been circulating throughout the media, however, many women decided that they couldn’t stay quiet any longer, ultimately igniting a global reckoning. Women all over the world were furious not only because of Everard’s death, but what was seen as a harsh and misogynist response from police afterward. Everard’s kidnapper and murder suspect was a police officer at the time of her death, and cops were seen violently pulling women to the ground during a peaceful vigil for her over the weekend. These events on top of her death are just a few out of the many instances that prove that the police are failing to protect women, and so women all over the world have been urging for change. 

It is clear that Sarah Evarard’s death had sent such shock waves about the true dangers of womanhood. Soon after Evarard’s disappearance in early March of 2021, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women published a report that declared that 97 percent of women in the United Kingdom aged 18 to 24 have been victims of some kind of sexual harassment in public areas. Upon hearing this news, women across the world became inspired to share their own personal stories of sexual assault and harassment under the hashtag #97percent. Although Wayne Couzens has been arrested in connection with Sarah’s murder, the young woman’s death struck a chord with a number of social media users, sparking an international movement. Women across the nation turned to TikTok to share what they were wearing at the time of their attack or abuse, with many using Cynthia Erivo’s “Get Up” as the sound for their videos. While not every man is guilty of sexual assault, the study claims that nearly every woman has been subjected to it. Many women can confess to getting an unwarranted nude or catcall at some stage in their lives, as surprising as the study’s results are. It truly is not an uncommon occurrence, and while these results seem really shocking and high, the truth is that we’ve long known that the number of women who are sexually abused or harassed is truly high itself. It really makes me wonder: will this long-ignored suffering of women finally be put to an end?