Tory leadership contender Liz Truss has pledged to make street harassment such as cat-calling, kerb crawling and making lewd comments a specific criminal offence.
The wannabe PM vowed to outlaw public harassment and rapidly bring in a new domestic abuse register to clamp down on violence against women.
Police officers would receive compulsory training on how to help victims of domestic abuse under her plans.
A campaign source said the new law would cover the most serious examples of street harassment, rather than isolated incidents of wolf whistling.
It comes after Boris Johnson resisted calls to make street harassment a specific offence in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard in 2020.
Home Secretary Priti Patel reportedly wanted to change the law but was blocked by Mr Johnson.
Nimco Ali, an independent Home Office adviser and friend of Mr Johnson and his wife Carrie, suggested that the PM had vetoed the plan in a BBC podcast earlier this year.
Labour called for street harassment to be criminalised last year as part of its strategy on tackling violence against women and girls.
Ms Truss said the nation had been "shocked" by a number of high profile murders over the past two years, such as the killings of Ms Evarard and teacher Sabina Nessa in London.
She said: "It is the responsibility of all political leaders, including us in Westminster and the Mayor of London to do more.
“Violence against women and girls doesn’t have to be inevitable. Women should be able to walk the streets without fear of harm and perpetrators must expect to be punished.
“Through increased police training, new offences, faster processes for rape victims and our Domestic Abuse Register we will ensure victims are protected, and crimes are prevented in the first place.”
Shadow Domestic Violence Minister Jess Phillips welcomed the U-turn but questioned Ms Truss' record on the issue in Government.
“Labour has been calling for this exact policy for months, and while we welcome the sudden interest from Liz Truss, we would ask what she did to drive this work forward as the Minister responsible for women and equalities," she said.
"On her Government’s watch, charges for rape and domestic abuse have plummeted, a full perpetrators strategy is still missing and they are still refusing to bring forward a domestic abuse perpetrators register.”
Labour MP Stella Creasy said: "Recognising how misogyny drives crimes against women is something we have been calling for - and the government voting against - for sometime so this U-turn is welcome.
"Yet Liz Truss knows the misogynistic harassment which women face isn't just on the street- we need a coherent approach across the criminal justice system learning from those police forces already recording these crimes and giving our courts the ability to punish those whose hatred of women means they seek to cause them harm."
It comes after Ms Truss set out wider plans to publish police league tables while asking forces to slash serious crime by 20%.
She would release crime rate statistics showing how each force is performing against the national average, with leaders of underperforming ones forced to set out plans to improve.
Ms Truss also wants every domestic burglary to be attended by a police officer in person.
Rishi Sunak's campaign branded it a "lightweight plan" and a power grab from police and crime commissioners.
A spokesman said: "The real way to get crime down is more police on the streets, which is why Rishi Sunak has prioritised funding to get these 20,000 new officers by the next General Election.
"And on ‘non crime hate incidents’, we don’t need a code of practice. Things are either illegal or legal.
"Free speech is legal and the police should not be wasting time getting involved, and they won’t in a Rishi Sunak government."
