A little disturbed at the dismissive 'men struggle too!' comments on this thread. As a 5'4 woman of average attractiveness living in a historically 'bad' neighborhood in the biggest city in the US, I've been harassed and followed, and so have most of my female friends. The worst was when I was followed by two different men in one night. I was drunkenly gorging on falafel (sexy) when the asshole started, and he only ceased once I got on the subway (after 3 city blocks). The second picked up when I got off. I crossed the street to avoid a group of men and got this straggler instead. He followed me for another 3 blocks yelling "sweetie", and asking "where are you going baby?", "can I come home with you?". We were getting closer to my block and I really, really, didn't want him to know where I lived. He didn't seem to be letting up so in a fit of stupid, drunken bravery I turned around and pleaded, in the most defeated, exhausted manner I could muster: "please, I'm just going home." To my relief, it worked. He stopped. But I had to beg.

Being female in a poor neighborhood, liberties are definitely taken against you. I've been catcalled by uniformed police officers before, though this was a few years ago when the neighborhood was worse. Now that more white people live here I don't think that would happen again.