Who is affected by sexual harassment

[ch 1: page 6]

Anyone can be affected by sexual harassment. However, in the vast majority of cases it is committed by men against women.

The TUC’s poll revealed that sexual harassment in the workplace is usually committed by a colleague against a colleague, followed by a manager or a member of the public. While women are overwhelmingly more likely to be the targets of sexual harassment, it is important to remember that it can also affect men and that it can also be carried out by someone of the same sex as the complainant.

Sexual harassment is very often linked to an imbalance of power with the perpetrator exploiting their senior position. A junior member of staff who is being sexually harassed by someone senior to them will all too often feel too afraid or nervous to speak out.

A worker can be sexually harassed by:

• someone on their team;

• their manager;

• someone else in the organisation;

• a third party, i.e. a customer, patient, client or student.