Joanna Williams Joanna Williams

When sexual harassment is defined so broadly it becomes meaningless

Almost a third of young women think that winking is a form of sexual harassment. Let that sink in. For 28 per cent of women aged 18 – 24 the merest flick of an eyelid, an action so small as to be barely noticeable, is considered to be unwanted sexual behaviour that violates their dignity, makes them feel intimidated, degraded or humiliated and creates a hostile or offensive environment.

Now, I’m normally first in line to point out the flaws in surveys that tell us only the views of a small number of people motivated to answer questions about sexual harassment. But the YouGov research lands at a time when stories about sexual harassment dominate news coverage. It comes on the back of a BBC survey claiming half of women are sexually harassed at work. Both add weight to the growing perception that to be a woman today is to face a constant barrage of abuse.

These reports and surveys tell us little about what goes on in the typical workplace but they do offer an alarming insight into the way sexual harassment is defined nowadays. Almost 70 per cent of young people interviewed by YouGov, both men and women, consider wolf whistling to be sexual harassment. A quarter of the respondents to the BBC survey said the sexual harassment they had experienced was jokes or banter. What’s surprising here is that so few women claim to be victims: presumably those who’ve never been whistled at or overheard a lewd joke all work in a nunnery.

When sexual harassment is defined so broadly it becomes meaningless. We have no way of differentiating between winking, knee touching, groping and sexual assault. All fall under the same heading. This risks trivialising the most serious incidents.

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