We knew that the school was far from being the haven of peace and protection that it claims to be, as we relate in this article. A new study confirms this fact. Nearly a quarter of young women (26%) have suffered at least one type of sexual and gender-based violence, according to an OpinionWay barometer carried out for the NGO Plan International France.
In detail, the violence reported is mainly sexism, of which 22% say they are victims. 6% say they are victims of sexual harassment, which, as we recall, is defined as “the fact of repeatedly imposing on a person comments or behaviors with sexual or sexist connotations which either undermine their dignity because of of their degrading or humiliating nature, or create an intimidating, hostile or offensive situation against him” or “to use any form of serious pressure with the real or apparent aim of obtaining an act of a sexual nature”.
Sexual assault in a school environment affected 7% of the women surveyed (defined by law as “any sexual assault committed with violence, coercion, threat or surprise”) and rape, 3%.
Mostly young people
Another worrying figure, almost 5% of young women say they have “avoided going to class because of sexual and gender-based violence in the establishment” and half of the young women (aged 13 to 25) interviewed say that the last The establishment they attended does not sufficiently support young victims of sexual and gender-based violence. Only 18% of young women who say they are victims of sexual and gender-based violence have spoken about it to school staff, whether to teachers, the management of their establishment or medical staff at their school.
Finally, the last lesson from this survey is that the perpetrators of sexist and sexual violence are overwhelmingly young people (92%), most often of the same age, with adults only making up 9% of the situations described (responses being multiple, the total is greater than 100%). Men or boys are the most widely represented perpetrators (83%), but not all women and girls are without violence, since they are cited by 34% of respondents.
* Sample of 1,039 young women, representative of the French female population aged 13 to 25. The sample was constituted using the quota method, taking into account the criteria of age, socio-professional category and region of residence, and interviewed by self-administered online questionnaire. The interviews were carried out from December 8 to 17, 2023.