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Let’s not take another quarter century to end sexual harassment
By Elizabeth Broderick
Opinion piece
Publication: The Advertiser, (Friday 11 January 2008, pg 18)
By Sex Discrimination Commissioner and Commissioner responsible for Age Discrimination, Elizabeth Broderick
“When my uncle does it I know it’s not right, but when my boss does it, I am simply confused”. These are the words of a young woman I met on my recent Listening Tour to South Australia in response to a question on sexual harassment.
My national Listening Tour consultations, which began in Adelaide late last year, are telling me loudly and clearly; we must put sexual harassment back on the radar with the message that not only is it costly in its impact on victims and business, but it is, quite simply, unlawful. No woman or man should put up with it.
I started my Listening Tour in South Australia because it has always been a trail blazer in its treatment of women. It was the first Australian state to give women the vote in the late 19th century and the state which now boasts a 50 per cent target for women on government boards.
We’ve come a long way since the federal Sex Discrimination Act was introduced nearly 24 years ago, but this one vignette from the working life of a young woman must serve as a clarion call to us all – men and women – to make sexual harassment in the workplace a thing of the past.
I know this scourge – and it is just that – is not just a South Australian phenomenon. As I travel around the country I am hearing more and more stories of how sexual harassment in all its ugly forms is sadly alive and well in many Australian workplaces, across all levels and all industries.
A few years ago HREOC’s review of sexual harassment complaints highlighted the continuing challenges that sexual harassment presents, particularly for women in paid employment.
In the first comprehensive national survey into sexual harassment in Australia, (Twenty years on: the challenges continue) HREOC found that 28 per cent of women and seven per cent of men aged between 18-64 had experienced sexual harassment at work. Nearly one in five sex discrimination complaints received by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) in 2006 - 2007 related to sexual harassment, the overwhelming majority of incidents occurring in the workplace.
Many participants at my South Australian consultations thought instances where management responded swiftly to address sexual harassment were few and far between, and in one participant’s words, the ‘stuff of fairytales’.
The general view was that when people did complain about sexual harassment, they were further victimized. Interestingly, this view was also shared by some South Australian business representatives with whom I met. They labelled making a complaint ‘career death’.
Of particular concern is the widespread confusion about what is appropriate behaviour between colleagues and when the line is crossed – a situation made more complex with television, sport and online media sending signals that a lack of respect for women is okay.
Although the picture of sexual harassment is quite grim, I have been heartened to hear ideas for change, many of which came from young women. They suggested that all new applicants for Australian Business Numbers be provided with information on the rights and responsibilities of employers towards eradicating sexual harassment; or providing information to young women and men while still at school when they start looking for their first part-time job. I believe that with a concerted effort and strong commitment from all, we can create safe and healthy workplaces that are free from sexual harassment.
Either way, it is clear from my travels so far that sexual harassment needs to be a priority issue for the next five years of my term and I look forward to working with government, business and the media to make sure there is no place for it in Australian workplaces of the 21st century.
You can contribute to the Listening Tour via the interactive website at http://www.humanrights.gov.au/listeningtour/index.html
HREOC has a range of resources to help businesses, organisations and individuals to understand and deal with sexual harassment or call the complaint information line on 1300 656 419
Second thoughts
Sexual harassment is part of a continuum of violence against women. Did you know?
- Sexual harassment is unwelcome conduct which makes a person feel offended, humiliated and/or intimidated where that reaction is reasonable in the circumstances.[1]
- Around one in three Australian women have experienced violence from an intimate partner in their lifetime. [2]
- Intimate partner violence is the leading contributor to preventable death, disability and illness in Victorian women aged 15 to 44.[3]
- The strongest predictor of attitudes that condone violence against women is a lack of support for gender equality.[4]
[1] HREOC (2004) Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: A Code of Practice for Employers.
[2] Mouzos, J. & Makkai, T. (2004) Women’s experiences of male violence: Findings from the Australian components of the international violence against women survey, Research and Public Policy Series,no. 56, Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra.
[3] VicHealth (2004) The health costs of violence: measuring the burden of disease caused by intimate partner violence: a summary of findings, Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, Melbourne.
[4] VicHealth (2006) Two steps forward, one step back: Community attitudes to violence against women, Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, Melbourne.
