Where is it most prevalent?

Women and young women in particular are overwhelmingly the group most likely to be affected by sexual harassment. The perpetrator is most likely to be male and a colleague. Incidents also often centre round an abuse of power with the perpetrator taking advantage of their more senior position. The TUC poll found that nearly one in five respondents said that their line manager or someone else with direct authority over them was the perpetrator.

It is impossible to give a detailed analysis of exactly who is affected and to what extent as most incidents of sexual harassment go unreported (see page 11).

According to the TUC’s Still just a bit of banter? report over half of working women have experienced some form of sexual harassment rising to two thirds for women aged between 18 and 24.

The research found a correlation between casualisation and sexual harassment. Younger women are more likely to be working on casual contracts, be in a junior position and to have not been working for the employer for very long, all of which make them particularly vulnerable. Young women in casualised work are also less likely to be union members and so will find it much harder to challenge incidents of sexual harassment without the support of a rep.