How to Defeat Gender-Based Harassment In The Workplace - Introvert Whisperer

Introvert Whisperer / How to Defeat Gender-Based Harassment In The Workplace - Introvert Whisperer How to Defeat Gender-Based Harassment In The Workplace No surprise if we hear anything about harassment in the workplace. Today’s newspaper and social media platforms are popped up these kinds of news expressing the pain and sentiments of the victim. Let’s refresh your memory with #Metoo movements which recently in News and describes the stories of women’s sexual harassment and sexual assault across the world. This shows that women around the world are affected by gender-based crime that includes sexual assault and harassment, especially in their workplace. Any kind of sexual favours, inappropriate jokes, intimations, comments, and unwelcome physical contact reflects sexual assault. In India, the  Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013  is a legislative act which passed by the Lok Sabha on 3 September 2012 and by Rajya Sabha on 26 February 2013. This act protects women from sexual assault in their working areas either it is public or private. As per the report of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), more than 85% of women have to deal with some form of assault at their workplace. There are 162,872 harassment allegations received by the EEOC from 2010 to 2015. In India, there is a 54% rise in harassment cases at the workplace between 2014 to 2017. Time to stop the crime and madness What are we missing to stop the madness? That we need to search and implement a great strategy. “Actions speak louder than words” much-related statement to the situation; we all know the data and cases reported across the world but what we are doing to bring the end of all these happenings that matter. No woman can delete or just erase the professional life because of some other cruel mindsets and actions. Instead of deleting, we can raise our hand and can adopt some steps to lower down these kinds of acts in working areas: 1. Create sexual harassment training in workplaces and make it compulsory for every leader While working, we all follow some policies to infuse discipline and control in your organization. Policies that allow employees to take leaves or to modify their work for better results. But, this time we need to think beyond the usual things to protect employees without losing their enthusiasm and self-control. To fight these kinds of acts in workplaces, we must have to define the section of sexual harassment training and make it mandatory for managers and top-level members. Because of that, employees will understand the seriousness of the subject and how some activities negatively hurt someone’s feelings. Intense research of Eden King, an associate professor at Rice University, describes the significance of effective harassment training in work premises. She also highlights the reactions of people in power towards complaints lodged by the other colleagues for their misbehaviours. She emphasis face-to-face training for more impacts and support the active participation  of all employees either man or woman for the same. 2. Encourage more women into high-level designations To provide a fast pace to resolve the issue, we need to change our so-called strategy in which sexism symbolizes the residing of males on high perches preventing females from smashing the glass ceiling. An article “Training Programs and Reporting Systems Won’t End Sexual Harassment. Promoting More Women Will” that published in Harvard Business Review describes how to reduce sexual harassment by promotion more female employees on leader positions. The authors also state that most cases of workplace harassment witnessed under the leadership of male employees. Thus, the answer is simple for removing sexual assault from any organization that hires and promotes more females. Baloonr has conducted a study that expresses the views of about 35% of respondents on the solution of addressing the issue of harassment by providing more leadership roles to women. 3. Accept the need for intervention culture at organizations Very few organizations adopt the culture of promoting employees to present and discuss the case of harassment. This we called a culture of intervention. If this is possible in every organization where leaders will take initiative for providing protection and plays their role actively, then the cases of harassment will be reported easily and action could be taken accordingly. When employees notice that their organization is principled and taking this kind of act genuinely, their attitude will change and their knowledge will improve resulting in a better working and safe environment. Chai Feldblum, EEOC Commissioner, has shared his views to “Business Insider” in 2016 that companies first need to find out what kind of behaviours will not be tolerated at work. Once they have policies regarding unwelcome acts at the workplace then they need to take a step ahead and describe how to report about those actions easily. He further adds that people willingly will come to report inappropriate  acts if they feel that their complaints are taken seriously, inspected and lead to action. 4. Understand the requirements of changes All things start from a change; a change that opens the various channels of communication and enhancement. We need to change the perception of taking advantage of our position and power. Thus, the fight is about the deconstruction of false values infused by toxic thinking and the philosophy of sick minds. An article published on BBC describes the root cause of sexual assault is the old-aged beliefs and notions; A notion that men are more powerful than women, a notion that females are inferior than males and thought that men should act as aggressors and women should act gatekeepers. Changing someone’s thinking and mindsets is not possible within the four walls of a room, we need to begin the process at the earliest days of education and development. “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything,” said George Bernard Shaw. Hence, the change will start from us and we require to change the thinking that promotes gender-based discrimination. Our thoughts and leadership must boost diversity and inclusion, and set the standards for whats suitable and unsuitable in terms of behaviour. 5. Adopting the culture of ingenuousness Why are we not able to develop the right process to address the issue? I think the answer is fear of revenge or maybe fear of being judged for no cause.   If you check out the reports of the “National Crime Victimization Survey,” we will find that only one in three sexual harassment cases is reported. And the reason for not reporting the cases could be fear of retaliation. This is because people in higher position are not taking the responsibility seriously. A leader should create and build a work environment where victims feel safe and can come forward to report their cases. This strategy will promote a healthy and safe working environment for employees and can help to stop sexual harassment to a great extent. An open-door policy must infuse into the system reflecting the caring behaviour of managers towards subordinates. Leaders ensure victims that they are serious towards these issues and eager to know whats going on with the  team if anything discussed quickly and openly. 6. Fight against gender bias physiology When we move forward, we find a gender gap. We are putting our effort and energy to reduce it but still, it is there. But this gap becomes wider in last year as per the report of  a March Institute for Womens Policy Research in which women are facing various issues. As per the New Yorker, various technology companies (Google,  Twitter, Microsoft, and Uber) are unable to take corrective actions to tackle  class-action gender-discrimination suits.   An audit on Google employees pays practices has been conducted by the Department of Labour and noticed that there is a systemic compensation inequality against women pretty much across the entire staff. It also reveals the presence of six to seven standard deviations between pay for males and females in almost every job class.