According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commision (or EEOC) the number of men making sexual harassment claims against male supervisors has doubled in the past twenty years, from 8% to 16% of all cases filed.<\/p>\n
In Michigan, the percentage of claims of male on male harassment in the workplace rose from 16.6% in 2007 to nearly 27% last year.\u00a0 California saw a similar increase from 18% to nearly 24%.<\/p>\n
Some men claim they were groped or otherwise molested.\u00a0 Others endured slurs or other verbal abuse.\u00a0 Many were demoted or fired when they resisted or complained.<\/p>\n
Are more men really being harassed on the job?\u00a0 Or are men simply more willing to come forward?<\/p>\n
A comparison of unemployment figures to harassment claims raises another possibility: in states where unemployment is higher (nearly 15% in Michigan, for example) the share of claims filed by men saw a bigger spike.<\/p>\n
Conversely, in states where unemployment actually dropped, like Nebraska with it’s 4.7% rate, the percentage of claims filed by men actually dropped by half between 2007 and 2009.<\/p>\n
It may also be telling that more men lost jobs than women over the past couple years.\u00a0 In the past, employment attorneys say if someone was being harassed at work they might have just left and found work elsewhere.\u00a0 Now it’s much tougher to find that next job so more victims may be turning to the courts instead.<\/p>\n
Mary Jo O’Neill, a lawyer with the EEOC, says the actual number of people being harassed at work is still much higher than the reported cases.<\/p>\n
“Most sexual harassment victims don’t come forward and complain.\u00a0 Most sexual harassment victims quit their jobs because it’s too much of a hassle and they are traumatized by it and frankly they’ve suffered.”<\/p>\n
“It shocks me still what happens in work places, that this kind of egregious physical sexual assault… is going on.\u00a0 Am I surprised?\u00a0Unfortunately I’m not.\u00a0 Am i shocked?\u00a0 Yes, i’m shocked.\u00a0 No employee should have to work in an environment where they have to tolerate this kind of conduct in order to support their families and support themselves.”<\/p>\n
If you believe you’re a victim of unwanted sexual harassment, O’Neill recommends complaining in writing (and keeping a copy for yourself) if there’s a process for doing so at your place of employment and then filing a formal charge of discrimination with the local branch of the\u00a0EEOC because if you don’t, the behavior is likely to continue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commision (or EEOC) the number of men making sexual harassment claims against male supervisors has doubled in the past twenty years, from 8% to 16% of all cases filed. In Michigan, the percentage of claims of male on male harassment in the workplace rose from 16.6% in 2007 to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4752,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-505526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4752"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505526\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}