From the media one could get the impression that workplace sexual harassment is sporadic, a case here, a case there. That gives only a spotty picture of the problem. We will see that the sexual harassment problem is actually much more widespread. But the media only reports individual cases.

The media would never report unemployment like they report sexual harassment. For unemployment they give us graphs, charts, and tables. We can tell whether unemployment is rising, holding steady or falling. We can tell whether unemployment is higher in one state than in another. All of that is useful information. It might help an unemployed person to decide where to look for a job.

For sexual harassment the media give us a completely different picture. Nothing systematic, just one isolated case after another. We do not get systematic evidence from the media. We are not informed whether things are getting better or worse. We are not informed whether the problem is bigger here or there. Surely these would be useful to know.

The US Merit Systems Protection Board, USMSPB, survey “Sexual Harassment in the Federal Workplace” asks federal employees whether they had experienced sexual teasing, jokes, remarks, questions, sexual looks or gestures, invasion of personal space by deliberate touching, leaning, cornering, pressure for dates, communication of a sexual nature by letters, calls or sexual materials, stalking, pressure for sexual favors, and attempted or actual rape or assault over the past two years.

There are definite patterns in these data sets. Joni Hersch in the article below documents that sexual harassment rates are highest in fields like agriculture, public administration, construction and lowest on fields like education, health, and financial activities. Interestingly, sexual harassment rates peak when the victim is between 25 and 34 years of age. Surely there are other patterns in the data that the medio could report that would be useful information for women.

We can all contact our favorite news outlets and ask them to do a better job in telling their readers that workplace sexual harassment is a systemic problem that needs to be reported as such. If women are told that this is a systemic problem and not just isolated instances, they may perhaps feel more empowered and when harassed more likely to report the abuse.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11166-018-9288-0