Study Finds Women Tend to Leave Jobs Following Instances of Sexual Harassment
A recent article on Occupational Health & Safety Online discussed a study which found that women who have suffered from sexual harassment in the workplace have a tendency to leave the organization. Professor Eran Vigoda-Gadot and research student Chana Levi from the University of Haifa surveyed 192 women who work in the public sector in Israel. The purpose of the study was to determine how sexual harassment in the workplace may or may not change a woman’s behavior in the workplace, the likelihood of a woman to leave an organization following an instance of sexual harassment and to observe how much internal politics and an employee’s belief in her ability to change things affect the behavior of women who have been sexually harassed in the workplace.
The study revealed that women who have been sexually harassed in the workplace have a tendency to leave their jobs. This tendency is caused by several factors relating to a woman’s belief in her own power to change the status quo. Depending on the level of internal corporate politics, women tend to flee rather than put up a fight.
The researchers’ conclusions indicated that “organizations that wish to combat the phenomenon of sexual harassment ought to set clear policies that minimize uncertainty and the risks that confront a female worker who wishes to make a complain.” Women should not stand silent in the fight against sexual harassment in the workplace and should be encouraged to speak up if such an instance occurs, no matter the degree of sexual harassment.
