(image: Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Nov. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — One out of 4 South Korean women have experienced sexual harassment or sexual violence at work, a survey showed Sunday.
According to a survey conducted by pro-labor civic group Gabjil 119 of 1,000 wage workers, consisting of 570 men and 430 women, 25.8 percent of the women and 10.9 percent of the men said that they had experienced sexual harassment or sexual violence at work.
The offenders were mainly superiors (45.9 percent) and executives (22.5 percent). In response to a question asking how they responded when they suffered from sexual harassment or sexual violence (multiple answers possible), 63.1 percent said that they just bit the bullet or ignored the circumstances. Worse, 37.8 percent of the victims eventually quit.
In reply to a question asking why they didn’t report the offenses, 52.4 percent said that the situation would likely remain unchanged even if they reported it.
Among the respondents, 37.7 percent of women and 22.2 percent of men said had experienced sexual harassment.
In reply to a question asking how they responded when they were sexually harassed (multiple answers possible), the majority of the respondents (65.2 percent) said that they endured it and ignored it.
The offenders were superiors (45.9 percent), executives (21.4 percent) and coworkers of similar rank (18.6 percent).
The share of those who experienced work-related stalking stood at 10.9 percent.
By type of stalking, interfering in one’s day-to-day life was most common at 6.9 percent, followed by the behavior of approaching or blocking the way at 6.4 percent and the behavior of damaging personal items at 5 percent.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
