On this day in women’s history…
| March 14th, 2004March 14
1961: Eleanor Roosevelt delivers a three-page list of women qualified for “top federal jobs.” President John Kennedy appoints less than a dozen.
1964: 38 residents of a Queens neighborhood failed to respond to the cries of Kitty Genovese as she was stabbed to death in the street outside their homes. The murderous attack could have been stopped and Genovese’s life saved had any of them called the police because the actual murder went on for a period of time. Many of the residents said they thought it was a domestic dispute and wouldn’t get involved.
March 14th, 2004 at 3:01 am
Wow, the Kitty Genovese story is really, really absorbing and terrifying. The 38 people who witnessed the crime but didn’t call the police or help was perhaps the scariest thing although the personality of the killer was also pretty terrifying. This is a real downer, but in general I am so grateful for you doing this day in history thing. This blog is invaluable for all of us who think feminism is a good thing rather than something to be sneered at, feared and put down.
This comment was written by Anna in Cairo.Report this comment to the moderators
March 14th, 2004 at 3:10 am
Thanks Anna.
Yeah, the Kitty Genovese story has become rather infamous here in the states. There have been numerous studies based on it. There seems to be a combination of people not wanting to get involved because they fear that it is “simply” a “domestic dispute,” and those who figure that someone else has already called.
I think we, as a society, have gotten a bit better about this over the last 40 years — but it still happens (ok, maybe not as extreme as the Kitty Genovese case — but, in general).
This comment was written by bean.Report this comment to the moderators
March 14th, 2004 at 3:38 am
Wow. I didn’t know Kitty Genovese was murdered on my birthday. That case always horrified me. I didn’t know until later that people thought it was a lover’s quarrel (those were the words I heard were used.) I know that one man chose to not call police because he was drunk and didn’t want police messing with him. One woman didn’t want her husband getting involved.
This comment was written by Trish Wilson.Report this comment to the moderators
March 14th, 2004 at 6:18 am
Yesterday NPR ran a story which noted that she was gay. I never knew that. As a dyke myself, when I heard it the indifference of the 38 neighbors no longer surprised me.
This comment was written by Pudentilla.Report this comment to the moderators
March 14th, 2004 at 2:37 pm
I can’t say that I’ve ever heard that she was gay. But, since most of the neighbors didn’t know who it was, I’m not so sure that would have had anything to do with their reluctance to call. Remember — this was taking place on the street, not in her apartment, so it’s not like they just knew it was her. Very few even looked out their windows; of those that could, they claimed they couldn’t see exactly who it was or what was happening. One guy did shout down, “Hey, leave that girl alone,” but that’s about as far as the help went.
This comment was written by bean.Report this comment to the moderators
March 15th, 2004 at 3:45 am
It’s funny, that the name sounded familiar to me, but I had never read about the case. I am American and raised in Oregon, must just be because it happened before I was born. Anyhow it was very shocking.
I remember when I lived in DC with my Egyptian husband how he would want to get involved when we heard domestic disputes from our next door neighbors but the one time we tried to interfere to help the wife she did not appreciate it. So we didn’t do it again. We did call the cops to help a neighbor in another apartment building though because her ex-boyfriend was trying to break down her door.
Respondign to the person who said that the more people see something the less they try to get involved: Here in Egypt the opposite thing happens, when there’s a fight or any sort of conflict out in the street everyone pitches in to pull people apart and calm them down. However I think people probably have the same prejudice about not calling the cops for “domestic disputes” (99 times out of a hundred that means “man beating his wife or kids”) as they did/do in the US. Fights behind closed doors are ignored.
This comment was written by Anna in Cairo.Report this comment to the moderators
March 15th, 2004 at 11:10 am
This case is a classic in psychology, as a demonstration of “diffusion of responsibility.” Basically, the more other people are available who could be taking action (as, here, the folks behind all the other visible windows), the less likely any one person is to take action. The longer something goes on, the more likely we feel it is that somebody else has intervened. And so forth.
A good reason not to worry about being the 15th person to report a crime or fire! You might be the first!!
This comment was written by acm.Report this comment to the moderators