The role of gender composition in workplace sexual harassment

BACKGROUND: Workplace sexual harassment is associated with adverse mental health consequences and research suggests that gender minority status may be a risk factor. We analysed the prevalence of workplace sexual harassment in male and female-dominated-occupations to elucidate the role of gender minority status. METHODS: We analysed data from a survey (n = 9,012) on sexual harassment from a random sample representative of the Danish workforce. We measured sexual harassment by 21 items covering three domains: (1) unwanted sexual attention, (2) gender harassment and (3) sexual coercion. We focused on sexual harassment conducted by other employees at the workplace. We categorized the gender-ratio for male- or female-dominated occupations into: low (under 25%), medium (25% - 75%), and high (more than 75%). RESULTS: We found an increased risk of sexual harassment in both male and female dominated occupations. Women in male dominated occupations had higher risk, with prevalences of 25.3% (95%CI 19.5; 31.1) for high, 21.8% (95%CI 19.1; 24.3) for medium, and 10.4% (95%CI: 8.1; 12.8) for low proportion of men. We found similar patterns across all three domains of harassing behaviours. For men, the pattern in relation to female-dominated occupations was slightly different. We found that men had the lowest risk of sexual harassment in gender-balanced occupations. The prevalence for men in occupations with medium proportion of women was 14.0% (95%CI: 11.9; 16.1), whereas the prevalence for men in occupations with high proportion of women was 21.1% (95%CI: 13.3; 28.8), and it was 16.1% (95%CI: 12.7; 19.5) in occupations with low proportion of women. We saw similar patterns in all domains except gender harassment. CONCLUSIONS: Both men and women were most likely to report sexual harassment in occupations where they were a gender minority. The results highlight the role of gender composition in workplace sexual harassment and calls for further attention on prevention in high risk groups. KEY MESSAGES: • Both men and women reported more often sexual harassment when they were a gender minority in their occupation. • For women, prevalence of sexual harassment was lowest in occupations with a low proportion of men, whereas for men, prevalence of sexual harassment was lowest in occupations with gender-balance.