Australia: One in Four Women Sexually Harassed in the Workplace by Melissa Marino The Age 8:19am 25th Mar, 2004   Canberra.March 25, 2004    Australian Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward has put employers on notice after the first national survey on sexual harassment found that more than one in four women had been harassed at work.    Twenty years after the first laws against sexual harassment were introduced, 28 per cent of women aged 18 to 64 said they had been sexually harassed at work. The figure for men was 7 per cent.    Now that baseline figures had been collected, Ms Goward said rates of sexual harassment could, for the first time, be monitored. Another survey should take place in three years. "If there's no change, why wouldn't a government start to say, 'We'd better look at toughening up the law'," she said.    Ms Goward said she was surprised that half the reports of harassment at work were physical, involving unwelcome touching, hugging, cornering, kissing or unnecessary familiarity.    "Sexual harassment often begins with verbal abuse, innuendo or unwanted sexual comments. It may go on to involve behaviour such as propositioning, asking for sexual favours, unwanted touching, assault or even rape," she said.    Australian Attorney-General Philip Ruddock, in co-launching the findings, said the report had painted a picture that was "really quite disturbing". He said there were no immediate plans to tighten the laws, but education to change attitudes would help prevent harassment.    The Gallup telephone survey of more than 1000 people aged 18 to 64 found that less than a third of those harassed formally reported the offence, and more than half said they lacked faith in the system. Others said the harassment did not warrant reporting or they had dealt with it themselves.    But Ms Goward said she was encouraged by the finding that 87 per cent of people who had witnessed a case of sexual harassment had done something about it, including confronting the harasser.    The survey says sexual harassment includes unwelcome sexual conduct that makes a person feel offended,humiliated and/or intimidated.It can include unwelcome touching,staring or leering, suggestive comments, sexually explicit pictures,unwanted invitations to go out on dates and unnecessary familiarity.    In the Gallup telephone poll, 41 percent of women and 14 per cent of men had experienced sexual harassment in an area of public life.    "It appears then that a message of intolerance and unacceptability concerning sexual harassment is certainly being heard in some workplaces," she said.    Almost half of all victims said their harasser was a co-worker, but 35 per cent said it was a supervisor or boss. In half the cases, the harassment continued for more than six months.    Ms Goward said sexual harassment was holding women back at work. "It is a form of unlawful sex discrimination that acts as a barrier to women's full participation in the workplace."    The survey was launched with a revised code of practice for employers and posters that will be distributed to schools, employer groups, unions and community groups as part of a Human Rights and Equal Opportunity campaign targeting sexual harassment.    Mr Ruddock said the code would give practical advice on how to implement sexual harassment policy and how to prevent harassment from occurring. But shadow attorney-general Nicola Roxon said the Government had dropped the ball when it came to violence against women. "This Government has never collected any material on it at all, so we have to rely on significant, but still small, surveys like this," she said.    Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Peter Hendy welcomed the updated code as a useful guide and timely message.    Click on the link below to access the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commissions Sexual Harassment in the Workplace resources. Visit the related web page
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