A new study by HR consultancy Reabur.com has found
that almost one in ten, eight percent of women feel sexually harassed whilst at
work, however only 44 percent of those admitted to having reported it to
another member of staff.

When asked ‘why have you not
reported the sexual harassment incident to a manager or HR department’ one in
three, 32 percent say they feel ‘it would affect their future career’ and a
further 21 percent do not think that the complaint would be ‘taken seriously’.

According to the research 21
percent of the 1,496 women asked have had a male colleague make a sexist
comment in the work place, with 39 percent of them admitting that they wanted
to make a formal complaint about the remark.

Two percent of those asked
claim to have been touched inappropriately by a male colleague whilst at work,
although only 14 percent of them have told anyone about the incident. 23
percent of them explained that they fear they may be seen as ‘overreacting’.

Of the women polled, 16
percent claim to work in an environment dominated by men, 41 percent of which
say they ‘prefer’ working with men.  However, 26% of the women that work
predominately with men admit to feeling ‘uncomfortable’ in certain situations.

The study also found that 11
percent of the female respondents have felt ‘victimised’ by their male peers
and a further 23 percent feel that their male boss would promote a male
colleague over them, because of their gender.

A further 16 percent of
those asked cited that they do not feel as though male peers ‘respect’ them and
12 percent do not think their boss has as much ‘faith in their abilities’ as
they do on their male peers.

Kirsty Burgess, Co-Managing
Director of Reabur.com had the following to say about the findings; “It is
concerning that many women still feel that they will not be taken seriously. I
would strongly advise any victim of harassment to report the incident to a
manager or trusted colleague. On many occasions these situations can be
resolved internally, and the resolution makes for a much happier work
environment.”

She continues, “There
definitely seems to be the feeling that males are preferred in the workplace.
Although this is difficult to prove, my advice is that if people do feel
undermined at work for any reason, they contact the appropriate HR department,
if there is one. If not, there are many other forms of advice out there for
people to take advantage of.”

9 September 2010

Human Resources news brought to you by theHRDIRECTOR ; the only independent strategic HR publication.