'Harassment widespread’

Press, 21 January 1982, Page 4

'Harassment widespread’

Evidence is clear that sexual harassment is widespread throughout the workforce, according to the Advisory Committee on Women's Affairs.

About 80 per cent of working women were harassed, said the committee, citing results of a survey it had made. Most incidents were milder forms of sexual harassment, such as verbal abuse, touching, grabbing, and pinching. More than 2000 questionnaires were sent to those on the committee’s newsletter mailing list; 64 completed questionnaires were returned.

The "typical" replier to the survey was in her mid-

30s, well educated, an urban dweller, and earning about $15,000 a year. She worked in a profession and was either single or in a stable first marriage. About two-thirds of the survey's respondents considered unwelcome attention from men offensive. Few believed that their sexuality should be used to advance their career. Few found sexual harassment flattering or of no consequence. Some qualified this remark by saying that it depended on the proposition and the person involved. The committee’s report said that "most found the specific occasions that had happened to them embarrassing and/or demeaning —

a distasteful experience." Few of those who responded to the survey said that physical attractiveness was the important deciding factor in their securing jobs, nor did they think that male physical attractiveness was important. But 45 per cent said that physical attractiveness was just as important, or less important, than other qualifications. “Nearly all saw sexual harassment in the work place as being a problem, whether serious or minor,” said the report. “Those seeing, it as minor usually saw other problems as being more serious or modified their answer to read ‘it is.a: minor problem where ' I work.’

"The main tactics used as a defence against sexual harassment were to act in a cool and guarded manner and, if that did not work, to pretend not to notice it.” The committee's report said that the main aim of the survey was to encourage women to come forward with their experiences, and to raise employers’ awareness of the problem, unions' awareness, and the public’s awareness. “For too long sexual harassment has been regarded as a private matter, and not seen as a serious social problem, a form of often accepted, but unacceptable discrimination. This situation must change, said the report.