The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) today (12 May 2022) released the findings of the first-ever “Territory-wide Representative Survey on Sexual Harassment in Hong Kong 2021”. About 17.8% and 11.8% of respondents reported having been sexually harassed online and at work respectively over the past 24 months prior to the survey. It also indicated that young women aged between 18 and 34 were more vulnerable to both workplace and online sexual harassment. The mean score of the “Sexual Harassment Awareness Index”, 80.26 for all respondents of this survey, showed that there was a rather high level of awareness of sexual harassment among people in Hong Kong. 

“This territory-wide representative survey is the first of its kind in terms of its sample size and its coverage of the general population of Hong Kong,” Dr Rizwan ULLAH, Convenor of Policy, Research and Training Committee of the EOC said. “Anti-sexual harassment has always been one of the top work priorities of the EOC since we launched the Anti-Sexual Harassment Campaign in 2013. This survey adds on to a number of questionnaire surveys on sexual harassment in various sectors conducted by the EOC in the past years. It is of paramount importance to have empirical data on sexual harassment in Hong Kong, so that we can have a comprehensive picture of the issue and a better understanding of the prevalence in order to tackle the problems,” Dr ULLAH explained the reasons for conducting the survey.

The EOC conducted this survey between March and June 2021 to gauge the public’s awareness of sexual harassment, examine the prevalence and nature of online and workplace sexual harassment, study the characteristics of those who were sexually harassed, and analyse the actions taken after being sexually harassed or when witnessed or heard about incidents of workplace sexual harassment. A total of 5,027 respondents aged from 18 to 64, including Hong Kong residents and foreign domestic helpers, and who were Cantonese, Putonghua or English speakers, were successfully interviewed via telephone.

Awareness of Sexual Harassment

Each of the respondents was given 16-scenario-statements and asked to assess whether these scenarios constituted sexual harassment, and a “Sexual Harassment Awareness Index” (SHA Index) was then created to examine the overall level of awareness among the general public in Hong Kong and to make sub-group comparisons. From zero to 100, a higher score indicated that the respondent has a greater ability to identify sexual harassment behaviours accurately. The mean of this SHA Index for all respondents was 80.26. This average score suggested a rather high level of awareness of sexual harassment among people in Hong Kong. Men scored significantly lower than women (men: 77.11; women: 82.74), and the younger the respondents, the higher the SHA Index score (aged 18-34: 83.35; aged 35-49: 79.78; and aged 50-64: 78.23). Besides, respondents who received sexuality education in primary and secondary schools showed a higher level of awareness of sexual harassment than those who did not.

Prevalence and Nature of Online Sexual Harassment

Among the 4,689 respondents who surfed the Internet in the past 24 months, around one in six of them, or 17.8% reported to have been sexually harassed online. More men (18.3%) claimed to have experienced online sexual harassment than women (17.3%). Significant age differences existed, with more young adults sexually harassed online (aged 18-34: 23.3%; aged 35-49: 16.4%; and aged 50-64: 14.0%). In addition, the survey also showed that a quarter (25.7%) of young women aged 18 to 34 had experienced online sexual harassment in the past two years prior to the survey, the highest prevalence rate among the sub-group of respondents.

The most common forms of online sexual harassment included “receiving indecent photos or videos online, making you feel offended” (55.8%) and “receiving sexually suggestive messages online, making you feel offended” (47.1%), followed by “someone made sexually suggestive comments or jokes to you online, making you feel offended” (26.7%).

Prevalence and Nature of Workplace Sexual Harassment

About 11.8% of respondents (463 out of 3,928 respondents) reported having been sexually harassed at work in the past 24 months. In other words, nearly one in eight respondents had experienced workplace sexual harassment. Women were significantly more likely to have been sexually harassed at work (women: 14.6%; men: 8.8%). Though workplace sexual harassment was experienced by respondents across all ages, the survey indicated that the younger the age, the higher chance of experiencing workplace sexual harassment (aged 18-34: 18.4%; aged 35-49: 10.2%; and aged 50-64: 7.2%).

The chance of younger women aged 18 to 34 being sexually harassed at the workplace was significantly higher. They were almost twice as likely to be sexually harassed at work (young women 22.5% vs overall average 11.8%).

The most common form of workplace sexual harassment was sexually suggestive comments or jokes. Among 463 victims of workplace sexual harassment, over three-fifths of them (61.5%) said that “someone at work made sexually suggestive comments or jokes to others in their presence, making them feel uncomfortable”, while nearly two-fifths (37.9%) reported that those offensive comments and jokes were made directly to them.

Characteristics of Harassers of Workplace Sexual Harassment 

In terms of the perpetrators of workplace sexual harassment, two-thirds (66.7%) of the most recent incidents of workplace sexual harassment were committed by male harassers and 16.8% by female harassers, while 16.6% involved a mix of male and female harassers. Yet a quarter of male victims (25.9%) were harassed by female harassers alone, and the respective figure for female victims was 11.7%.

Regarding the relationship of the perpetrator to victim, on the one hand, more female victims were sexually harassed by someone who was more senior and powerful than them at work, including employer, immediate supervisor, and colleague at a higher rank (female victims: 30.5%; male victims: 17.9%) and clients (female victims: 15.9%; male victims: 11.9%). On the other hand, a greater proportion of male victims were sexually harassed in the workplace by colleagues at the same rank (male victims: 50.3%; female victims: 41.4%) and by colleagues at a lower rank (male victims: 17.3%; female victims: 9.2%).

Actions Taken by Victims and Bystanders after Incidents of Workplace Sexual Harassment

Out of 463 victims of workplace sexual harassment, 79.5% of them took actions in response to the most recent incident. Female victims were significantly more likely to take action after being sexually harassed in the workplace (women: 84.1%; men: 71.1%). In total, 14.7% of victims made a formal report to either the Police, the EOC, or supervisors or management of related departments within their companies or organisations. 

Two-fifths (41.4%) of the most recent incidents of workplace sexual harassment were witnessed or known by someone else in the workplace. However, out of all victims, only 11.9% of the most recent incidents of workplace sexual harassment were intervened or stopped by a third party. 

Among these 3,460 respondents who claimed they had not been sexually harassed at workplace, only 2.3% witnessed or subsequently heard about incidents of sexual harassment occurring in their companies or organisations. Among these witnesses, a majority of bystanders (73.7%) attempted to intervene in the incidents of workplace sexual harassment they witnessed. Among those witnesses who did not take any action, almost half of them reasoned that they did not know what to do (49.7%) and one-third said that they did not know whether the incident constituted sexual harassment at that time (35.6%).

Conclusions

Dr Ferrick CHU Chung-man, Executive Director (Operations) of the EOC said, “This survey tells us that sexual harassment is prevalent, regardless of sex and age. Young women aged 18 to 34 are more vulnerable to sexual harassment, no matter in online or workplace environment.” 

“From this survey, we learnt that workplace sexual harassment is not only a kind of gender-based violence, but also a power-based violence. The findings illustrate that those with less power, in particular younger women, and those who took up temporary or short-term positions, were more likely to face sexual harassment at work. The survey also shows that an anti-sexual harassment policy protects one from experiencing workplace sexual harassment. Those working in a company or organisation with no anti-sexual harassment policy or measures were significantly more likely to be sexually harassed at work,” Dr CHU continued.

Recommendations

Based on the findings of this study on sexual harassment in Hong Kong, the related evidence documented in overseas literature and previous studies, and the good practices adopted by and legal requirements imposed on various stakeholders in other places, ten recommendations are suggested. Four are highlighted below: 

• Every staff can be a potential victim or bystander at the workplace. Employers should encourage potential victims to be assertive and adopt a bystander intervention approach in delivering staff training programmes so that they can become part of the solutions to the workplace sexual harassment.
   
• Employers, regardless of the size of their company or organisation, are strongly encouraged to: (a) develop a clear corporate anti-sexual harassment policy; (b) establish an effective system to handle complaints; (c) take disciplinary or appropriate actions; (d) implement timely improvement measures; and (e) provide awareness training to staff regularly.
   
• The Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited should consider reviewing the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Reporting Guide of the Listing Rules to include the adoption of an anti-sexual harassment policy as one of the key gender equality strategies that issuers of listed companies should disclose in their ESG report.
   
• The Government might explore the feasibility of introducing a positive duty on employers to take reasonable and proportionate steps to prevent and respond to workplace sexual harassment.

For other recommendations and details of the survey, please refer to the report: https://www.eoc.org.hk/en/policy-advocacy-and-research/research-reports/2022-1.

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Equal Opportunities Commission
12 May 2022
 

(From left) Dr Joanne IP Chung-yan, Senior Research Manager; Ms Doris TSUI Ue-ting, Acting Head (Policy, Research and Training); Dr Rizwan ULLAH, Convenor of the Policy, Research and Training Committee; Dr Ferrick CHU Chung-man, Executive Director (Operations); and Ms Susana SOO, Senior Equal Opportunity Officer (Anti-Sexual Harassment Unit) from the EOC presented the findings of the “Territory-wide Representative Survey on Sexual Harassment in Hong Kong 2021” at the press conference.