More than half of women have experienced sexual harassment in their working career, says the Statistics of Finland

Sexual harassment is still common in working life, says Statistics Finland.

According to a survey conducted by Statistics Finland, more than half of women aged 18–74 have experienced sexual harassment during their working career. About one in seven men, or 14 percent, have experienced sexual harassment.

According to Statistics Finland, the probability of experiencing sexual harassment decreases with age, and young women especially experience harassment.

The harasser is often a man. According to Statistics Finland, 82 percent of those who experienced sexual harassment said that they had experienced harassment by a man. 17 percent of those who experienced sexual harassment said that they experienced harassment by a woman. Nine percent said that the harasser was not identifiable.

“It is typical of the harassment experienced by women that the perpetrator is almost always a man, often either a customer, a colleague or a supervisor. Harassment experienced by men is typically done by a female colleague or customer, but in about a third of the cases, the perpetrator is another man,” says a special researcher at the Statistics Finland Marjut Pietiläinen in the bulletin.

In working life the harasser is often the customer. 57 percent of those who experienced sexual harassment had experienced harassment by a customer or a similar person. On the other hand, almost half of the respondents who encountered harassment said that the harasser was a colleague.

According to the data, more women experience harassment by customers, but being sexually harassed by a co-worker is almost equally likely for both men and women.

According to the study, customer harassment is encountered especially in customer service tasks. On the other hand, harassment by a co-worker typically occurs in male-dominated fields.

According to Statistics Finland, sexual harassment by superiors occurs most in office and customer service tasks in male-dominated fields and in fields where men and women work equally.

Sexual According to Statistics Finland, harassment in working life most typically manifests as inappropriate staring or looks that make you feel uncomfortable, inappropriate sexual jokes or offensive remarks, and unwanted physical contact.

Chief Actuary of Statistics Finland Aku from Bell points out in the bulletin that sexual harassment is experienced quite often in working life, but only four percent of those who have been in working life think that harassment is common in their current or most recent workplace.

“This is probably due to the fact that the majority of those who have experienced sexual harassment only have isolated experiences of harassment,” von Bell estimates.

Statistics Finland according to that, only about a third of the respondents have reported the harassment they experienced. 22 percent of the respondents told their superior and 15 percent to the workplace harassment contact person.

According to Von Bell, it is typical to tell a colleague or a close person about sexual harassment.

“Experience is probably sought for more support than intervention in the case. This may indicate that harassing situations are tolerated rather than resolved”

Information are based on the EU Gender Based Violence study carried out by Statistics Finland, which measures the prevalence of violence at the population level. The material used by Statistics Finland was collected in 2021.