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Shanghai/Beijing: A survey has revealed how unsafe it
is turning out for the women in China to work at offices, with one
in five women respondents admitting to have suffered sexual
harassment at her workplace.
The survey, released by Women's Watch China, a Beijing-based
non-profit organisation, has revealed that most of the victims put
up with routine sexual exploitation at workplace helplessly,
fearing social repercussions or loss of job if they object to it.
The poll found 20 percent of the 1,837 participants from 10
enterprises in Guangdong, Jiangsu and Hebei provinces and Beijing
had been sexual harassment victims, the China Daily reported.
The survey's definition of sexual harassment included acts of
leering, getting inappropriately close, sending text messages or
e-mails with sexual content, improper behaviour such as obscene
gestures or flashing, kissing, hugging and even rape.
It has been learnt through the survey that despite the vast number
of victims, most of them choose to maintain silence about their
ordeals or leave their jobs instead of reporting these or taking
legal action against their attackers. They do so because of a lack
of support structures and difficulties in gathering evidence.
Only 45.6 percent of those who were victimised took issue with
their harassers and just 34.3 percent reported the person to
managers. Fewer than 20 percent called police or took legal
action.
In contrast, 87.4 percent of the respondents who had never
experienced harassment said they thought they would warn their
harassers "if sexual harassment occurred," and 70 percent said
they would report or sue the harasser.
The reason why many women who fall victim to such assaults in the
real world do not report the incidents is that they worry about
negative fallout from doing so, such as being the target of
gossip, being forced to leave their jobs and being paid less or
downgraded, it was learnt.
Only five percent of the victims said they knew who to call after
they were harassed.
"A lot of female victims choose to be silent because they are
afraid of losing their jobs, especially when the harasser is their
boss or a superior," said Chen Wei, a lawyer specialising in
women's issues at Beijing-based law firm.
"Even though some victims are brave enough to seek legal help,
they realise it is difficult to collect evidence because the
harassment usually happens behind closed doors without someone
else present or happens quickly before the victim has time to
react," Chen said.
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