The Challenges Continue (2004)

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The Challenges Continue

Opinion piece by Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward. Published in The Australian, 24 March 2004

You'll be pleased to know that Australians don't think sexual harassment is political correctness gone mad. In those cases where people witness it happening to others, 87 per cent of us do something about it. Actions range from confronting the harasser to comforting the victim - now that's mateship.

This figure is just one of the results of the first national survey of the incidence and nature of sexual harassment in Australia, conducted by the Gallup Organisation for the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. It's one we can be proud of, unlike some other results from the survey.

Two thirds of sexual harassment happens in the workplace, and although the majority of victims are women, men make up a significant group.

In conducting the survey we used conservative definitions to satisfy even the most sceptical of observers, for example, conduct such as suggestive comments or jokes, unnecessary familiarity, unwelcome touching, hugging or kissing. Even so, more than one in ten (11 per cent) of adult Australians experienced workplace sexual harassment in the last five years. This is 15 per cent of women workers and six per cent of men - translating to almost a quarter of a million Australians experiencing it at work last year.

There were other shocking revelations from the survey: unwelcome physical contact, or worse, occurred in almost half of all cases and co-workers do the harassing almost half the time (not too good for team morale?).

In addition, less than a third of cases were reported, mostly to the boss. This was sometimes good (they thought they could manage it themselves or it wasn't serious enough), but sometimes bad (they thought they would lose their job or that nothing would be done).

On the flip side, the good news was the majority of employers who, when they received a complaint of sexual harassment, dealt with it seriously. A majority disciplined the harasser. Strangely, this didn't translate to more employees complaining to the boss and says something about the need for employers to promote prevention programmes as well as grievance procedures.

Twenty years after sexual harassment was first made unlawful under the Sex Discrimination Act (1984) there is no excuse why almost a quarter of a million people a year, mainly women, should have their working lives made a misery. It's about respect, and we clearly need more of it.

Ms Goward and federal Attorney General Philip Ruddock will launch the sexual harassment in the workplace material at Parliament House today.