If you experience sexual harassment at work, the mistreatment could cause significant emotional distress and interfere with your job in various ways. Sometimes, sexual harassment leads to a demotion, the inability to keep working due to a hostile environment and financial hardships as a result of job loss.
Unfortunately, sexual harassment remains a serious problem in the U.S. Employees and employers should examine data on this topic in order to understand how prevalent harassment is and take steps to prevent and address sexual harassment.
Statistics show the prevalence of sexual harassment
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reports that they received more than 5,500 sexual harassment charges during fiscal year 2021. In fiscal year 2020, the agency received over 6,500 sexual harassment charges, and more than 7,500 during fiscal year 2019.
Women accounted for 78.2% of sexual harassment charge filings between fiscal years 2018 and 2021. Over the course of this period, the EEOC helped more than 8,100 victims recover benefits. In fact, the EEOC recovered $299.8 million in monetary benefits via litigation and resolved charge receipts between fiscal years 2018 and 2021, compared to $196 million between fiscal years 2014 and 2017.
Addressing sexual harassment
Sadly, some victims of sexual harassment remain silent because they worry about consequences that could arise if they speak up or they feel voiceless. Others may not even realize that the harassment they endured constituted a violation of their rights. If you have dealt with unlawful sexual harassment at your place of work, it is pivotal to take a firm stance and hold the offender(s) answerable.