4 ms·
The universal rate of sexual harassment of females is 31%[1] in Silicon Valley it is 60%[2]. The restaurant industry is notorious for sexual harassment and the
by nikcub 11y ago
The universal rate of sexual harassment of females is 31%[1]
in Silicon Valley it is 60%[2]. The restaurant industry is notorious for sexual harassment and their rate of harassment from superiors is 66%[3] - about par with Silicon Valley.
So, yes, it is a problem in Silicon Valley - and ignorance of the severity of the problem is a large part of the problem (you'll find a lot of research on sexual harassment in other industries but very little on tech and SV in particular).
[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20071018041054/http://www.sexualharassmentsupport.org/SHworkplace.html https://web.archive.org/web/20071018041054/http://www.sexual...
[2] http://elephantinthevalley.com/ http://elephantinthevalley.com/
[3] http://rocunited.org/pr-the-glass-floor-report/ http://rocunited.org/pr-the-glass-floor-report/
- Joeboy 11y agoThe second statistic says it's about "unwanted sexual advances", not "sexual harassment". Not being interested isn't the same as being sexually harassed. Edit: The way the page is written makes it hard to understand what most of it actually means, but if I interpret it correctly 50% of 65% of 60% received sexual advances from a superior more than once. So about 20% had experience of a boss failing to take a hint.
- cmdkeen 11y agoUnwanted sexual advances "from a superior" is the bit that makes it harassment. You can ask out a co-worker but you don't ask out people where there is a power imbalance in the relationship, it's not rocket science.
- Joeboy 11y agoIs Bill Gates' relationship with Melinda Gates sexual harassment?
- cmdkeen 11y ago"The owner of the company I work for approached me in the car park and asked me to dinner, it made me feel incredibly uncomfortable and I felt my career depending upon saying yes" "The owner of the company I work for approached me in the car park and asked me to dinner, I said to ask again nearer the time" Fortunately for Bill Melinda went with option 2. Had she gone with option 1... Unfortunately the problem is that it relies on the other person, which is why many places have policies about this sort of thing.
- yummyfajitas 11y agoThe 60% number refers to "unwanted sexual advances", not sexual harassment. Only 30% received unwanted sexual advances more than once, so that seems like a solid upper bound on actual sexual harassment. If you consider even a single unwanted sexual advance to be harassment then you get silly conclusions which I expect you don't endorse. For example, I've been "harassed" repeatedly by fatties and gay guys in the past few weeks - they approach me and go away when I display disinterest. Pune and Bombay are so unsafe for men!
- nikcub 11y agoThe U.N, amongst almost everyone else, defines an unwanted sexual advance as sexual harassment: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/pdf/whatissh.pdf http://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/pdf/whatissh.pdf
- Alex3917 11y agoNo it doesn't, they use basically the same definition as the U.S. Read the link...
- nikcub 11y agoI did: > The EEOC has defined sexual harassment in its guidelines as: > Unwelcome sexual advances .. > Such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment It's right in the first two lines - what am I missing?
- Joeboy 11y agoYou're missing the word "when" between the second and third of those lines. The third line restricts the scope of the second.
- nikcub 11y agoWhich is why I quoted the third point, as it covers both the OP and the Women In Tech survey It would be an extremely narrow definition to attempt to carve out unwanted sexual advances, especially from a superior, in a workplace not being sexual harassment.