Demand for “Safe Space”: Avoiding harassment and complying with norms

Abstract

We crowdsource information on $\approx$22,000 train rides undertaken by 363 women commuters in Rio de Janeiro to study sexual harassment in the public space and its effects on demand for a women-reserved space. Women traveling in the public space experience harassment on average once a week; randomly tasking them to ride in the reserved space reduces harassment by 50%. A revealed preference exercise shows that demand for the reserved space is heterogeneous, with top-tercile users making up 80% of the demand. These users experience half of the harassment in our sample. Data on commuters’ attitudes and use of the reserved space show perceptions of norms around the reserved space may limit women’s agency. Over half of men and women commuters associate women in the public space with more sexual openness and women who perceive this attitude to be the prevailing norm are 79% more likely to report using the reserved space.