Thank you for inviting me to speak today.
As a bit of background, my name is Sandy Welsh, and I'm a professor of sociology and I'm the vice-dean, graduate education and program reviews, in the faculty of arts and science at the University of Toronto. For over 20 years my academic research has focused on the study of sexual and workplace harassment. This work ranges from the analysis of the 1993 Statistics Canada “Violence Against Women Survey”, analysis of confidential sexual harassment complaints to the Canadian Human Rights Commission, and the analysis of an interview- and focus-group-based study of Ontario women's experiences with workplace harassment and violence, especially in terms of their ability to seek some kind of legal recourse and remedy for their complaints.
I've also provided oral or written evidence at numerous Ontario and Canadian human rights commission tribunals, as well as in the 1997 coroner's inquest into the deaths of Theresa Vince and Russell Davis, where Ms. Vince was sexually harassed and then murdered by her boss, Mr. Davis.
With my time today I want to address four issues I believe are important to keep in mind when considering the issue of sexual workplace harassment in Canada. These issues are, first, what is the prevalence of harassment in Canada; what is sexual harassment and where is it likely to occur; third, why women do not report harassment; and finally, how may we best prevent harassment.
I think you'll start to hear some themes in my comments that you've heard from my colleagues here today.
My opinions are based on my own research, interviews with women experiencing harassment, my experiences as an expert in various legal cases, and my understanding of the larger research in the area.
First, what do we know about the prevalence of sexual harassment in Canada? Based on my own analysis of the 1993 violence against women survey, and another Canadian national survey that was done at the time, these studies estimate that for the lifetime sexual harassment prevalence rate, or the chances that a woman would experience harassment over her lifetime—and they were focused just on women—the range was within 23% to 51%. Why this range? Some of that has to do with survey construction and how questions were asked, but I think it gives you a sense of the fact that a quarter to a half of women will experience harassment in their lifetime. Twenty years later, these are still the only national statistics we have. In my opinion, it's time for another survey for us to understand what's happening at the national level, and to include men in this survey.
Second, what is sexual harassment and where is it most likely to occur? I'm not going to go through a lengthy list of behaviours. Rather, I want to mention what I believe is at the core of almost all harassment behaviours. Sexual and workplace harassment is first and foremost an organizational issue, not an interpersonal problem. Whether the behaviours are sexualized, gender based, or generalized forms of abuse, at their core these behaviours are meant to be hostile and demeaning. As my colleague Dr. Berdahl just spoke to, and as others' work suggests, these behaviours often signal an individual or group is not welcome or is a competitive threat. In the case of sexual harassment, this is why we see women in male-dominated organizations or occupations more likely to be targets of sexual harassment.
Sexual harassment is also more likely to occur in certain contexts such as job insecurity. This includes workers in temporary positions, workers on probation or in some kind of trial period for a position, and also young workers who are new to the workplace. Sexual harassment is more likely where there are gender, racialized, or other workplace power differences. Here it is important to note that other types of harassment may co-occur with sexual harassment. For example, in my analysis of the sexual harassment complaints to the Canadian Human Rights Commission, approximately 10% of the complaints also involved physical abuse such as being spit upon, hit, or kicked.
Third, I'm often asked, “Why didn't she just report it?”, when testifying in sexual harassment tribunals.
Study after study documents that only a small number of women experiencing harassment file formal complaints. Why? Women do not report for fear of losing their job, fear of retaliation, fear of not being believed, a lack of family support for going forward with a complaint, and lack of information about the options for reporting.
In our study of women in Ontario, women's willingness to report was also affected by their citizenship or newcomer status. As a recent immigrant to Canada in our study said, she did not report because she did not think her experience was serious enough to be considered a complaint in the Canadian legal context.
Most women do not report until one of two things happens. First, the harassment escalates and becomes so severe they feel they can no longer handle it on their own, or second, they lose their job or some other severe outcome happens.
Just because someone does not make a formal report, it is important to remember this person may have signalled in numerous ways that there is a problem. Again the research literature is clear: women cope with harassment by avoiding the harasser, by taking days off, or using other strategies to get through the day.
During the inquest into the death of Theresa Vince, I testified to the multiple ways Ms. Vince signalled there was a harassment problem. This long-time employee in her late 50s decided to take early retirement to get away from her boss who was harassing her. She moved her desk to another part of the office and would have her colleagues intervene on her behalf when her boss phoned her line.
And while reporting is an important part of reducing harassment, it must be emphasized there is a cost to reporting for women in terms of time, money, and health. As my own work reports and as reported by others, we also know reporting is not straightforward.
Women in our Ontario study discussed what we call the legal runaround. Depending on the workplace, whether there's a union, and whether the workplace is federally or provincially regulated, women may be told to file a grievance through the union, through a workplace complaint procedure, or go to the Human Rights Commission, and they find themselves bouncing around from place to place trying to find the best place to start. Clearly more attention needs to be paid to women's and men's access to legal recourse when they would like to have it.
And finally, how may we best prevent harassment and violence? Three options are discussed in the research I'll mention here. Some of these Barb and Jennifer have touched on. I think other witnesses at this committee have also discussed this.
First is the need for supportive and cooperative workplace cultures where organizational leadership visibly supports anti-harassment cultures and policies, where gender, racialized, and other inequities across workgroups are reduced, and where interpersonal competition and job insecurity are reduced or at least recognized by management. These may be helpful in reducing harassment.
Second, proactive policies and procedures encourage reporting, and, hence, may help reduce harassment. It's important to note that reporting and filing of complaints are not necessarily a sign of a problematic workplace. I often hear managers say one complaint is too many. At the same time one complaint means someone believes she can complain and that her complaint will be taken seriously. So complaints are not the best measures of whether or not a workplace has a harassment problem. Rather complaints may mean an organization has a culture and policies and procedures that are doing what we want them to do, enabling workers to come forward when something problematic happens.
Third, training that encourages bystander interventions may make a difference. Programs where workers are trained not to ignore the harassment and violence, including developing strategies to push back early, may help. In practice these range from interventions on the spot such as calling out inappropriate practices or behaviours of colleagues to confidential complaint hotlines, especially for more serious offences or for larger workplaces.
In conclusion, what is central to our ability to reduce harassment at work? Policies and procedures are only a first step. We need to ensure that employers and managers understand that they have a role and a responsibility, that we work to ensure that our Canadian workplaces develop supportive organizational cultures where organizational leaders visibly signal that harassment is a serious issue, and that we encourage the role of bystander or co-worker intervention where appropriate. We also need to ensure that those who choose to complain can easily find where they should go, and that they are supported and have access to remedies that help them move their lives forward.
Thank you.