A new poll, commissioned by the humanitarian organisation CARE and conducted by Harris Poll, has found that almost a quarter of men (that’s 23%) believe it’s perfectly fine to ask or expect their employee to have sex with them. Sorry, what?!
The concerning stats come from a survey of 9,408 adults from across eight different countries worldwide, including the UK and the US.
Egypt topped the list where 62% of men surveyed thought it was totally OK for employers to expect ‘intimate interactions’ from their employees.
‘Being expected to have sex with your employer — that’s not a job description, it’s sexual abuse,’ said Michelle Nunn, CARE’s president and CEO.
‘And it speaks to the global epidemic of harassment and abuse in our workplaces.’
Other responses from participants showed that there is still a stark gulf between what men and women consider as acceptable behaviour in the office.
According to the poll, 44% of US men aged 18-34 think it’s sometimes or always OK to tell a sexy joke at work, compared to only 22% of women in the same age group.
Another WTF statistic included 21% of 18 to 24-year-old Ecuadorians surveyed think it reasonable to smooch a colleague at the office party without their permission.
And the Brits aren’t exempt from creeping behaviour by the water cooler either because apparently 35% of 25- 34-year-olds consider it acceptable to pinch a colleague’s bum as a joke. Hmmmm.
This survey stands as another depressing reminder that a world free from sexual harassment has still yet to be achieved and the battle for women’s equality continues.
‘We still have such a long way to go in stamping out sexual harassment and abuse globally,’ Nunn said, ‘whether it’s inside office buildings in the U.S., factories in India or the often-overlooked workplaces of housekeepers and caretakers in Latin America.’
This article originally appeared on marie claire UK
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