Great post. The question you pose at the end is an important one. Just another potential way to sugar-coat patriarchy.

(What happens when a woman is groped - or worse - in a train car that isn't women-only? Will she be blamed for not taking advantage of the "safe" space provided?)

Thanks for the thought-provoking piece. I missed your original post about this here, but I've been thinking about it since I read it yesterday.

My first reaction is to think segregated buses and train cars are great, but that is because I was molested on the Mexico City subway several years ago. To this day, I can't get be in a crowd without having a panic attack. That's been a bit of a hinderance, as I regularly take the subway in my city here in the US.

But as appealing as the segregated cars are to me on an emotional level, your article has made me question whether my gut reaction is the right one.

Thanks

True, it would be a lot better if everyone found mixed-gender public spaces to be safe. The problem is that we do not live in a theoretical world -- reality is reality. If gender-segregated transportation helps while the attitudes of people are changed, then I'm all for it.

Once again, the comments section of her article has shaken my faith in humanity.

Le Sigh

It was a good article that made a lot of sense. The people commenting at The Nation are not actually reading your article at all but jumping on their preconceived notion of a feminist. They just want to pull you down. Also interesting how they assumed you were supporting Clinton because your a feminist.

Keep up the good work. I'm glad you're writing over there more often. Obviously their readers need some feminist exposure.

I thought the post was brilliant, and I agree: this may be a temporary fix, but like you said, it should be on the harassers to stop instead of on the women to escape.

The comment section irritated the hell out of me, though. What fools.

great article. the posts at the end were rediculous...love how they assumed jessica was voting for hillary, even though that was no where discussed in the article.

My question is; are they also addressing the harassment?

If not, doesn't that make women who don't (or can't) use the women-only transport even more of a target? Kind of a scary thought...

Nice article. Congratulations on voicing your concerns without passing value judgments on the "segregation"--I've lived in cities where I've seen my female classmates struggle in non-segregated public transport. And it's not something I'd wish on any woman.

Segregation doesn't solve the ultimate problem, but nor does it help to prescribe exercise to someone in the throes of a heart attack. Urgent problems need urgent fixes first.

Segregating buses by sex will not solve anything. If we want to stop men from groping and sexually harassing women, we need to go after the men who are doing the groping. Simply separating men from their victims is telling them that they can't and shouldn't have to control their urges, so they will simply remove the temptation.
Also, it will simply increase the stigma that society places on women - women are sex objects that need to be protected from their objectifiers. Puh-lease.

"My question is; are they also addressing the harassment?

"If not, doesn't that make women who don't (or can't) use the women-only transport even more of a target? Kind of a scary thought..."

Especially when 50% of the commuters are female and far fewer than 50% of the buses, train cars, etc. on the route are female-only.

I am still looking for laws in Mexico that would apply to groping as sexual harassment or sexual assault. While I can read for example, "In many of Mexico's states, violence against women is still not considered a crime," I am hoping this apparent lack of legal oversight is merely a language barrier, not being able to find relevant literature in English.

It is sad that "Women-only transportation" is considered a "solution" as the AP writer wrote. One blogger writes that perhaps the solution for this "tradition" of harassment of women, is changing tradition. Indeed, my online search is revealing that Mexico has some other "traditions" that help create this environment aboard public transportation.

I am reading about the efforts of Lydia Cacho Ribeiro, a journalist who is also considered "one of Mexico's leading defenders of women's and children's rights." What she has to say about the situation of women and children (as well as her personal life because of her work) is pretty shocking.

We have the same system for trains here in Japan (with "women only" cars at the rush hours), and I think you hit all the issues directly on the head. Well done. It is indeed like providing a band-aid while avoiding the core issues. This got some of this same discussion when they started a few years ago, but I haven't heard anything about there being less groping/harassment incidents on trains...

Bravo, Jessica: "this international trend - which often comes couched in paternalistic rhetoric about "protecting" women - raises questions of just how equal the sexes are if women's safety relies on us being separated. After all, shouldn't we be targeting the gropers and harassers? The onus should be on men to stop harassing women, not on women to escape them."

I couldn't agree more. Enforce the damn laws and make examples of the gropers -- put an end to it, even if it requires extra police to crack down on it. As a male who would never dream of groping or making women feel uncomfortable, I don't want to be gender stereotyped with group of males who do this sort of thing (just as women have long fought against gender stereotypes), so I don't want "separate" spaces that are off limits to me -- but, I recognize that to make more than half the population feel secure in the male dominated world, that means the gropers and other weirdos need to be dealt with. And if they can't be dealt with, I guess it's a small price to pay to keep everyone with a penis off the "pink" buses.

its an interesting thing. on its face, having women-only buses or spaces, by definition is sexist. step 2 is figuring out whether or not that sexism is justified. i believe it is in these cases but what else can that be applied to?

I can see it already. "But she chose to get on the men's bus, she was asking for it!"

I lived and studied in Mexico City for six months. After experiencing constant "piropos," vulgar comments, butt slaps and just general unwanted attention, I applaud the single-sex buses. I think you should probably probably experience this culture firsthand before you rush to judgement. It is not some type of condescending attempt to protect poor defenseless women and children. Public transportation in Mexico City is frequently VERY unsafe and measures must be taken to protect all users.

Yes, I think the segregation is treating only a symptom of the larger problem, but it is a start. Maybe this will lead to a step in the right direction.

I lived and studied in Mexico City for six months. After experiencing constant "piropos," vulgar comments, butt slaps and just general unwanted attention, I applaud the single-sex buses. I think you should probably probably experience this culture firsthand before you rush to judgement. It is not some type of condescending attempt to protect poor defenseless women and children. Public transportation in Mexico City is frequently VERY unsafe and measures must be taken to protect all users. It is not sugar-coating patriarchy.

Yes, I think the segregation is treating only a symptom of the larger problem, but it is a start. Maybe this will lead to a step in the right direction.