Women, Action & the Media

They say necessity is the mother of invention, and Day 3 of our 16 Days of Action Against Gender Violence spotlights proves it. WAM!mer Emily May started HollabackNYC with some friends because they didn’t know what else to do to stop street harassment. Now she’s the Executive Director of Hollaback!, an international organization — with over 30 chapters from Argentina to New Zealand — empowering people around the globe creatively leveraging mobile technology to refuse to tolerate gender-based harassment on the streets.

At its most basic, May’s organization encourages people targeted by street harassment to document the harassment using cell phones and websites. But Hollaback is more than a killer app — Hollaback’s crowd-sourced initiative trains local activists to build and run Hollaback initiatives in their own communities in the ways that make the most sense to them. They’re holding live events in their communities, putting pressure on legislators and police, forming community collaborations, and more, developing leadership and building a growing grassroots movement against the status quo of gender-based harassment as they go.

We’re not alone in being grateful for Emily’s visionary work. Women’s eNews named her one of their 21 Leaders for the 21st Century in 2011, and Time.com recently profiled her for their “GameChangers” series. Check out their video, and you’ll see why yourself:

Inspired? Here’s how to get involved.