Milano – The long wave of the Me Toowith the big names in entertainment who have reported sexual harassment and blackmail, to put a stop to harassment in the workplace that continues to affect a good percentage of working women. In 2022-2023 it is estimated that, as regards the Lombardy14.9% of women aged 15-70, who work or have worked, have suffered sexual harassment at work during their entire lives; among men, the percentage drops to 2.5%. These percentages are higher than the Italian average of 13.5% for women and 2.4% for men, photographed by Istat in the survey on citizen safety carried out in 2022-2023. The percentages are rising sharply, if we consider that in previous surveys no more than 5% of female workers reported having suffered harassment. All age groups are involved, with greater concentrations in the youngest age groups (21.5% are between 15 and 24 years old).
What kind of harassment? are we talking? The most frequent ones are the inappropriate and lascivious glances that made the victim feel uncomfortable and inappropriate suggestions to go out together that offended, humiliated or intimidated the recipient. Then there are the lewd jokes of a sexual nature or offensive comments on the body or private life, attempts at physical contact against the victim’s will, inappropriate, humiliating or offensive advances on social media. Istat highlights, for the first time, precisely the role of the web: social, email, chat become places of harassment at work. A percentage equal to 2.6% of women and 0.2% of men are victims of physical harassment. The latter is carried out in particular on the younger age groups of the population reached by the survey, with a prevalence of 3.4% of young people between 15 and 24 years old.
Looking at the professional position of the victims, for men, top positions, managers, entrepreneurs and freelancers prevail with 4.4% and self-employed workers (3.4%), while among the women are most at risk: female workers (16.4%) and female employees and managers (15.0%). The incidents of harassment are not isolated cases: for women, repetitiveness has a higher incidence than for men. Both men and women rarely report: among women, only 2.3% contacted the police and 2.1% other official institutions. In Lombardy, in most cases there are no training courses in the workplace to explain to victims what to do in the event of harassment: only 33% of women responded positively, 23.5% of men; furthermore, 68% of women have no reference figures to turn to for help, and the same goes for men. The phenomenon of sexual blackmail to be hired or to advance their careers also remains present: in Lombardy, 2.1% of female workers have suffered it.
