38% women experience sexual harassment

Women experience inappropriate behaviour such as sexual harassment, hate speech and degrading comments related to their gender more often than men, according to the newest Gender Equality Barometer 2017.

The barometer showed that 38 percent of women has experienced sexual harassment in the past two years, said a press release issued by the Ministry of Family Affairs and Social Services on Friday.

Especially young women encounter sexual harassment. More than half of women under the age of 35 had experienced sexual harassment in the past two years.

This time, the Gender Equality Barometer specifically asked for the gender of the offender. The results showed that it was predominantly men who subjected women to harassment, whereas men experienced harassment from both women and other men. The barometer now also included questions on gender-related hate speech for the first time. According to the results, 15 percent of women and 8 percent of men had experienced gender-related hate speech.

Over one fourth of women who belonged to a minority group, such as a religious, ethnic, language or sexual minority, had experienced hate speech. The fear of violence and hate speech affects people’s daily activities. One fourth of women and one fifth of men, who feared violence, had cut down on their evening outings due to this fear.

“The results related to sexual harassment and hate speech are an outright disgrace for Finland,” stated Family Affairs and Social Services Minister Annika Saarikko, who is responsible for equality, in her presentation opening the event where the barometer was published.

“Inappropriate behaviour, hate speech and harassment must be weeded out of our society.” It is the task of policy-makers to see to it that legislation is adequate, but there is much for us to do as individuals as well. Do we stand by silently when young girls are harassed on the bus or do we shrug our shoulders at hate speech? The change starts from each of us, our family and friends.”

A great disparity observed between attitudes towards gender equality and experiences of equality

The newly published barometer is the sixth of its kind. The first Gender Equality Barometer was completed in 1998. At the level of attitudes, gender equality has been considered important in all the barometers and it has been believed that it is realised well in part, but experiences of the realisation of equality have also highlighted problems.

Women and men have very different understandings on the realisation of gender equality. Men feel that society is already quite equal, while women believe that there is still much room for improvement. Women also have more experiences than men of inequal treatment in working life.

Around one third of the barometer’s respondents felt that a person belonging to a gender minority such as a trans person or intersex person would likely experience discrimination if they were to work in the same workplace as the respondent.