According to a new survey by the Trades Union Council, 52% of women say they have been sexually harassed at work, furthering the narrative that women are victims in the professional sphere.
In nine out of ten cases the perpetrator was male, and displayed behaviours from inappropriate jokes to unwanted touching, comments, and demands for sexual favours.
Whilst the study has highlighted the numbers of women who experience harassment, most commentators aren’t addressing the whopping 79% that didn’t report it.
28% said they feared reporting would affect their relationships at work, whilst 20% said they were just too embarrassed.
TUC: "Four in five women did not report the sexual harassment to
their employer" https://t.co/PZPoIRcAI6 #HarassedAtWork #EmpLaw— * Leah Waller * (@Leah_W_88) August 10, 2016
“It makes us miserable at work, where we just want to do our job and be respected” TUC head Frances O’Grady (pictured above) told Radio 4’s Today programme.
But respect isn’t, in my experience, something that you get by putting up and shutting up. We need to confront the possibility that whilst men are perpetrating harassment, women are allowing it to continue.
Always invigorating to do #r4today first thing! Read more about sexual harassment at work here https://t.co/YRI5ZqW8dC
— Frances O'Grady (@FrancesOGrady) August 10, 2016
The TUC’s findings have not come as a surprise to many women. “It’s just accepted as a hazard of working life” is a sentiment I’ve repeatedly come across in discussing workplace harassment with senior female figures.
Meanwhile, many of us skirt around the fact that “acceptance” is a conscious choice. It’s a choice to stick around and quietly resent the situation rather than rocking the boat.
And by making this choice we participate in this warped power dynamic, we enable this conspiracy of silence.
Non-reporting may seem like an appealing option, the easiest route to the top, the path of least resistance, but in reality it leaves women simultaneously impotent and complicit in a toxic culture.
That 20% didn’t report harassment because they were too embarrassed is infuriating.
These women have no reason or right to be embarrassed. It’s not their behaviour that was shameful so why are they so eager to bear the burden of shame? In doing so, they let their corrupt colleges off the hook.
15% didn’t report because they were concerned for their career prospects. Which raises the question, to me at least, why are women still so concerned about participating – at huge personal cost – in a workplace that doesn’t respect or value them?
I speak from experience of this sort of workplace bullying. I found that after reporting harassment and finding that no one cared or was willing to help, I left.
I decided not to wait around until my superiors decided to treat me with dignity.
Tired of being told to “Lean In” to a broken system, I Leaned Out.
I vowed to find/create a different dynamic (by no means an easy feat) in which I felt more able to determine my own value and my own boundaries. I chose not to walk “the path of least resistance” and it’s about time other women did too.
We hear over and over that “harassment is still a major issue in the workplace”, so why don’t more women go and find or create different workplaces?
Perhaps they are still mired in the presumption that “the workplace” is a system created, defined and run by men?
I see women claiming to be fierce, fearless, wanting to smash glass ceilings. But in reality, they are smashing nothing. They are politely cleaning the glass ceiling to get a better view of what’s going on upstairs.
Don’t be surprised that when you so willingly accept the role of victim, people persistently victimise you.
Stop asking for and relying on men to respect you, women, and start respecting yourselves enough to fight for change more aggressively or walk away.
