Most of us will have hoped that sexual harassment at work was a thing of the past – something that our mothers worried about in the 70s and 80s.
But sadly we were wrong. A new TUC study published today reveals that 52% of all women and 63% of women aged 18-24 have been sexually harassed at work.
Our research, published in collaboration with the Everyday Sexism Project, is the largest of its kind in a generation and is one of the most extensive pieces of research on this issue in Europe.
For the first time in the UK, the study also includes a large enough sample to be representative of the experience of black, Asian and minority ethnic women – and rates of sexual harassment of BAME women were similarly high, with 52% being sexually harassed at work.
It seems sexual harassment is alive and well in the modern workplace – especially for younger women who are more likely to be in low-paid jobs, less aware of their rights and unsure of how to get help.
Nearly one in three women have been subject to unwelcome jokes of a sexual nature at work and more than one in four women have been on the receiving end of comments of a sexual nature about their body or clothes at work.
And it's not just verbal harassment taking place in offices and on shop floors around the UK. Physical harassment and even assault is horrifyingly common. Nearly a quarter of women have been touched when they didn't want to be (such as a hand on the knee or lower back) while at work, and 12% of women experienced unwanted sexual touching or attempts to kiss them while simply trying to do their jobs.
In the vast majority of cases (88%), the perpetrator of the sexual harassment was a man. And 17% of women reported that the harasser was their line manager or someone with direct authority over them.
Very few women who are sexually harassed at work take action. Four out of five (79%) women did not tell their employer about what was happening. Some felt it would impact negatively on their relationships at work or on their career prospects, while others were too embarrassed to talk about what was happening to them, or felt they would not be believed or taken seriously.
Time and time again we hear that sexual harassment is just a bit of banter. But the women who shared their stories with us show that's just not true.
Take Leah, who was just 19 when she was harassed:
"On a night out, I was stood in a crowd of male colleagues who were considerably older than me when one of them leaned through the circle and touched my boob while the rest laughed. Not one of them said anything or even seemed to think it was wrong."
Or Jasmine - on her last day at work a colleague told her that his biggest regret was that he didn't get the chance to have sex with her in the storeroom before she left. This was after months of comments such as "I'm coming to get you" and "don't go in there alone, I'll jump on you" whenever she had to go into the storeroom, which left her scared to be alone there.
This isn't about women being able to take a joke or not. Sexual harassment is undermining, humiliating and can have a huge effect on mental health. Victims are often left feeling ashamed and frightened. It has no place in a modern workplace – or in wider society.
So where do we go from here? First, employers need to get tough. The law says they have to protect their workforce from sexual harassment. Employers must take this issue seriously and ensure they have sufficient training and robust policies in place to protect staff – or they could end up at an employment tribunal. Bosses must take any report of sexual harassment seriously and show they have zero-tolerance policy for this behaviour – for everyone.
Second: the government must send a clear message that sexual harassment needs to stop. Ministers must cut tribunal fees that deter women from suing bosses who didn't protect them, and must make employers legally responsible for protecting their staff from harassment by customers and clients, as well as colleagues.
And finally: everyone should consider joining a union. If you are sexually harassed, they'll back you up. And it's the job of the union to get better policies on issues such as sexual harassment, and to make sure employers follow through on their promises to run training and get tough on sexual harassment.
Together, we need to make sure that sexual harassment becomes a thing of the past.
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Guest post: "Sexual harassment at work isn't 'just a bit of banter'"
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MumsnetGuestPosts · 10/08/2016 10:39
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