Bogotá launches virtual school to prevent sexual harassment and abuse of women on public transport

The Bogotá Women's Secretariat, UN Women Colombia and Free Taxis launched the Safe Cities for Women program, a virtual school for the prevention of sexual harassment and violence in transport and public space.

The training is expected to benefit 500 drivers of public transport, of whom there are more than 160 registered to date, who will carry out a training and awareness-raising process until June that will contribute to the provision of a better service by contributing to the construction of reliable environments for women to the time to mobilize in Bogotá.

The program focuses on addressing public space, in which women and girls fear being subjected to various forms of violence ranging from unwanted sexual comments and groping to gender-based rape and murder.

Bogotá is one of the cities in Colombia that are part of the global Safe Cities program that is led by UN Women with the support of Spanish cooperation and of which 40 cities around the world are part of.

In Bogotá, 90.5% of women feel insecure for fear of being harassed, according to an exploratory study conducted in 2017 to launch the Safe Cities program in the capital.

In addition, the Ministry of Education inaugurated the School 'Violets and Colors', a permanent pedagogical and collective action strategy for strengthening the leadership and empowerment of girls and women in the District's educational institutions.

It was created as a space for learning and practice, in which pedagogical opportunities are projected for the construction of networks through the encounter, reflection and problematization of girls and women and other members of educational communities who want to learn and deepen the gender approach.

The Ministry of Economic Development, through the Economic Development Observatory, published its latest study on the role of women in the labor market in Bogotá. In it, the entity revealed that in the capital of the country there is still an obvious employment gap between women and men: although women work the most in the city, they are the group that pays the least hours.

In the research, entitled “Women in the labor market in Bogotá, 2010-2020: differentiated analysis by sex”, the Observatory of Economic Development found that, in the capital, women work 64.2 hours a week on average, of which only 67.3% are paid, while men, who they work only 58.4 hours a week, economically recognizing 86.3% of their working hours.

The figures, as explained by the entity, are the result of the unequal distribution that still persists in Bogotá between men and women on home care. According to the study, a busy woman - working actively - spends on average almost half a working day in home care a week.

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