Sexual harassment at workplace is a sad reality which women face across the globe. So a group of women in United States decided to address the issue. They talked to more than 200 women with minimum 10 years of experience who were working in Silicon Valley, the world’s most prominent technology hub. Women talked about the issues they faced and also shared their shocking experiences. And thus they came up with a survey with the name Elephantinthevalley.
The survey is inspired by Ellen Pao (a former interim chief executive officer of Internet company Reddit) and her battle against gender discrimination and harassment which hogged media headlines in the last few years. It focused on five main areas : Feedback & Promotion, Inclusion, Unconscious biases, Motherhood, and Harassment & Safety. 77 percent of the respondents many of whom who were holding senior positions were over the age of 40 while 75 percent had children.
Here are some of its observations:
- 84 percent have been told they were too aggressive (with half hearing on multiple occasions)
- 47 percent have been asked to do lower-level tasks that male colleagues are not asked to do (e.g., note-taking, ordering food, etc.)
- 66 percent felt excluded from key social/networking opportunities because of their gender
- 90 percent witnessed sexist behavior at company off-sites and/or industry conferences
- 75 percent were asked about their family life, marital status and children in their interviews
- Of those who took maternity leave, 52 percent shortened their leave because they thought it would negatively impact their career
- 60 percent of women in Tech reported unwanted sexual advances
- 65 percent of women who report unwanted sexual advances had received advances from a superior, with half receiving advances more than once
- 1 in 3 have felt afraid of their personal safety because of work related circumstances
- 60 percent who reported sexual harassment were dissatisfied with the course of action
- 39 percent of those harassed did nothing because they thought it would negatively impact their career
- 29 percent signed a non-disparagement agreement
(Feature image is representational | Source: YouTube)