MSPB: Top risk factor for experiencing harassment is being female. Image: Lightspring/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffSexual harassment continues to occur in federal agencies at an “unacceptably high” rate, the MSPB has said, even though a survey it conducted in 2016 found rates lower overall than the previous one in 1994.
The MSPB report represents a fuller analysis of that survey than one the MSPB released in 2018 during the period it had no Senate-confirmed board members and could not release complete reports. It said that a “further analysis confirms what a quick comparison of the rates of sexual harassment for men and women suggests: the single greatest risk factor for experiencing harassment is being female.”
Women were more than twice as likely as men to report having experienced one of 12 listed forms of sexual harassment in the prior two years, 20.9 to 8.7 percent. In the 1994 survey, only eight forms were listed; on just those eight, the rates fell from 44.3 to 17.7 percent for women and from 19.1 to 5.5 percent for men.
Also as in the past, even more employees—28.9 percent of women and 22.7 percent of men—reported seeing such behaviors in their workplaces over the last two years.
The most common forms of harassment overall were exposure to sexually oriented conversations; unwelcome invasion of personal space; unwelcome sexual teasing, jokes, comments or questions; derogatory or unprofessional terms related to sex or gender; and unwelcome sexually suggestive looks or glances. Just among women, though, the most common was unwelcome sexual teasing, jokes, comments or questions.
About 2.5 percent of women experienced pressure for dates or stalking, about 1.5 percent pressure for sex, and less than half a percentage point actual or attempted sexual assault. Only 1 percent or below of men experienced any of those.
Agencies where women reported higher rates than the government-wide average were Navy, VA and DHS (27, 26 and 25 percent, respectively) while rates were lowest at SEC, GSA and NASA (9, 12 and 13).
Said the MSPB, “The survey data show that sexual harassment can be committed by anyone present in the workforce. In terms of gender, a harasser is most frequently a man acting alone, particularly when the target is a woman. However, women also commit harassment, most commonly acting as an individual and targeting a man.”
“In terms of role, harassment is typically committed by an agency employee, either at the peer level or by someone in a position of authority. For example, 45% of those who experience sexual harassment attributed it to a coworker, 11% to an immediate supervisor, 12% to a higher level manager, while 15% to a customer or other member of the public,” it said.
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