At the receiving end

The worldwide #MeToo movement has revealed that sexual harassment and assault are part of most women’s professional lives. However, this focus that comes from Hollywood should not make us overlook the other forms of violence women suffer in the world of work.

Sexual assault, insults, humiliation, discrimination, and beyond that contradictory orders or isolation are becoming ‘natural’ aspects of work relationships. Even worse, many women are afraid to report their attackers, because of not knowing who to turn to or out of fear of losing their jobs.

Even though men can also suffer violence and harassment in the workplace, stereotyping and inequality in power relationships make women much more vulnerable to it. It is particularly clear in Asia, where women garment workers may be targets of violence on the basis of their gender, or because they are perceived as less likely or able to resist. As a recent study showed, they make up the vast majority of workers in this sector: 80 per cent in Bangladesh and Indonesia, more than 90 per cent in Cambodia, 60-75 per cent in India and 85 per cent in Sri Lanka.

No relief at home too

And many women never manage to find relief at home, given that domestic violence is also part of their lives. A UN Women report highlights how 35 per cent of women all around the world have experienced physical and/or sexual violence at some point in their lives. This hidden issue ends up having consequences for working women’s physical and psychological well-being, including leading to health problems. .

This can lead to women leaving their jobs or giving up working, which results in interruptions in employment with consequences for current and future income (less right to pensions, etc), adding to the already unacceptable gender pay gap of 23 per cent between women and men.

Even though workplace violence affects all sectors and all categories of workers, the health sector — where women make up the majority of workers — is the one that best illustrates the seriousness of the situation. The World Health Organisation (WHO) calculates that violence in this sector makes up a quarter of all assaults that take place in the workplace. For example, a recent report from Thailand discloses that 47.7 per cent of health workers reported experiencing violence in the workplace.

When nurses are asked where this violence comes from, they point to patients and visitors on the one hand, and their colleagues and superiors on the other. In fact, work-related violence, and the steady increase thereof, is also due to external factors. It intensifies in situations of war and economic crisis, but it is also a consequence of privatisation and austerity measures, which bring with them increased flexibility that translates into violence towards workers in general.

The ILO states that the risk of violence in the workplace is seen to increase due to factors like changes, restructuring of production processes, insufficient staff, excessive workload, non-standard contracts and/or lack of safety. Similarly, the victims of workplace violence are not only those working in those places.

Public Services International (PSI) has been advocating the inclusion of the concept ‘third parties’ in the characterisation of victims and perpetrators of work-related violence..

As a society, we are all victims of work-related violence. Getting rid of it is a task for us all.

The writer is Gender Equality Officer at Public Services International.

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