Experiences of street sexual harassment: a descriptive study in a sample of women attending higher education in Cuba

Street sexual harassment consists of unwanted comments, whistling and other actions in public spaces, generally directed towards people unknown to the harasser. It is a social problem that concerns Cuban university women, which is why the objective of this research is to describe the perception of street sexual harassment in female students of Cuban universities based on their life experiences. A quantitative, cross-sectional design of descriptive scope was used by means of an online survey using Google Forms (R), using the Street Sexual Harassment Questionnaire. The sample consisted of 300 women belonging to 9 institutions of higher education in the country. It was found that the most common type of harassment was verbal/gestural harassment, in addition, there was a low presence of indirect harassment and physical/invasive harassment. It is proposed to develop further studies that integrate various social variables that may influence this phenomenon, in addition to awareness programs on its existence and impact.