When people think about sexual harassment at work, they typically see a lecherous boss pursuing a secretary around the office, or they imagine women in fields where males predominate being exposed to hazing by other men. An Austin sexual harassment attorney can give you the necessary help.
You might be surprised that women in leadership posts face sexual harassment at work even more frequently than women in junior jobs.
Even so, how is this possible?
A whopping 98% of businesses have explicit anti-harassment rules in their employee handbooks, but 35% of women claim to have nevertheless been the victims of sexual harassment.
In essence, a specific group of abusers finds it challenging to deal with women in positions of power. They become the focus of harassment from both those who are superior to them and those who are not, and they may endure greater pressure than women in lower jobs to remain silent about their experiences.
If they are being harassed by a superior, they may worry that filing a complaint would ruin their career and wipe out their hard-earned professional advancement. They can be concerned about coming out as “weak” if they file a complaint if they are being harassed by someone lower on the corporate ladder than them.
Gender is irrelevant to sexual harassment claims.
People can occasionally believe certain sexual harassment tropes. One of them is that sexual harassment usually occurs similarly and that gender plays a significant part. The reality is that both men and women can experience sexual harassment, and gender is no longer a factor in these circumstances. Similarly, harassers might be both males and women. Every year, complaints are made in both directions in the United States, demonstrating the reality of this kind of harassment.
The prevalence of sexual harassment
The previous patterns of sexual harassment are still more likely to occur, with women reporting incidents 83.5% of the time. However, just 16.5% of the lawsuits were brought by males.
However, this is sufficient to demonstrate that males are subjected to harassment and are starting to speak out against it. It is also important to remember that many men may still subscribe to these outdated assumptions and doubt their ability to report harassment, even when it has already been placed. This might signal that much information is being missed and that the proportion of reports submitted by males is too low.
