Precarious employment and self-reported experiences of unwanted sexual attention and sexual harassment at work. An analysis of the European Working Conditions Survey

Abstract

Unwanted sexual attention (UWSA) and sexual harassment (SH) are prevalent experiences for women in working life and often accompanied by poor health. Despite increasing numbers especially of young people working in insecure and irregular employment settings, there is little empirical evidence if such precarious arrangements are associated with UWSA or SH. To investigate this, we used a representative sample of the European working population consisting of 63,966 employees in 33 countries who participated in the European Working Conditions Survey in 2010 or 2015. Precarious employment (PE) was assessed on the basis of seven indicators and a formative index derived from them: temporary employment, contractual duration < 1 year, schedule unpredictability, involuntary part-time, low information on occupational health and safety risks (OSH), low pay (wage < 60%), and multiple job-holding. We measured self-reported experiences of workplace UWSA during the last month and SH during the last 12 months each using a single-item questionnaire. Multi-level Poisson regressions were used to estimate prevalence ratios for UWSA and SH according to PE adjusted for survey year, age, education, type of household, migration background, job tenure, weekly working hours, occupational position, working sector, company size, workplace gender ratio, and visiting customers or clients. 0.8% of men reported UWSA in the last month and 2.6% of the women. SH in the last year was reported by 0.4% of the men and 1.3% of the women. For both men and women, PE was significantly associated with elevated prevalence of UWSA and SH, in particular when reporting schedule unpredictability, multiple job-holding and low information on OSH. Our results suggest that precariously employed individuals may be more prone to experience unwanted sexual behaviour at the workplace compared with workers in non-precarious settings.

Workplace gender-based violence and associated factors among university women in Enugu, South-East Nigeria: an institutional-based cross-sectional study

“…For instance, studies have suggested power imbalance (i.e., power imbalance predisposes female staff to sexual coercion) in the workplace context, the offer of bonuses and promotion in return for sexual attention are prevalent in many workplaces including the academia [ 47 ]. Our findings corroborate prior research showing that sexual harassment of women is prevalent in diverse workplaces, including academia [ 48 , 49 , 52 , 79 , 84 ]. The finding is an urgent call for well-functioning support structures for SH's victims, and active organizational structures are also essential for preventing SH in higher education.…”

“…Also, WSH is a form of workplace harassment typically characterized by gender or sex lines [46]. Besides, the literature suggests that women are more likely than men to experience sexual harassment in a lifetime [47][48][49]. Fitzgerald identified three dimensions of SH.…”

Changes in precarious employment in the United States: A longitudinal analysis

“…We first restricted our analyses to 11 052 individuals who participated in at least two waves between 1988 (aged 23–31 years) and 2016 (aged 51–59 years). Then, to align with prior literature, we restricted to 10 281 individuals who were employed at least once ( 13 , 16 , 17 , 20 , 24 , 25 , 28 ). We further excluded individuals who had <40% of the survey items observed across their employed years combined (N=1730); this exclusion included self-employed individuals, who lacked data on many PE indicators.…”

“…Third, precariously employed individuals may have limited control over both their professional and personal lives, leading to psychosocial stress. Importantly, poor employment quality may be contributing to widening health inequities, as women, people with lower education levels, and those from racialized groups tend to have a higher prevalence of PE (8,13,15,17,(25)(26)(27)(28).…”

The Effect of Job Insecurity and Life Uncertainty on Everyday Consumptions and Broader Life Projects during COVID-19 Pandemic

“…However, these more “objective” meanings of precarity often tended to overlook the subjective, affective experience of insecurity which has instead a remarkable impact on employees, as shown by the psychological literature reviewed in the previous section [ 1 , 30 ]. Indeed, subjective job insecurity is certainly connected to work precarity, as occupational precarity entails nonstandard or atypical employment forms generally associated with a lack of security, regularity and stability, statutory rights, material rewards, working-time arrangements, training programs, protection against poverty and the like [ 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 ].…”