A look at harassment among college and university faculty and researchers
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Description: A look at harassment among college and university faculty and researchers
A look at harassment among college and university faculty and researchers
In 2019, about 1 in 3 women respondents experienced at least one type of workplace harassment in their postsecondary institution, compared with 1 in 5 men respondents.
| Men respondents | Women respondents | |
|---|---|---|
| percentage | ||
| Physical violence | 1 | 1 |
| Unwanted sexual attention/sexual harassment | 2 | 7 |
| Threats to person | 7 | 8 |
| Verbal abuse | 13 | 20 |
| Humiliating behaviour | 14 | 22 |
| Any type | 22 | 34 |
While experienced less frequently overall, unwanted sexual attention or sexual harassment had the largest gender gap—women respondents were 3.5 times more likely to be a victim than men respondents.
Persons with disabilities, Indigenous persons and sexual minority groups are among those at higher risk of harassment
Among both men and women respondents, postsecondary faculty and researchers with disabilities were 1.8 times more likely to experience harassment than their colleagues without disabilities. Women with disabilities experienced harassment at a much higher rate than men (52% vs. 38%).
In 2019, 40% of Indigenous faculty and researchers in postsecondary institutions experienced some form of harassment in the year preceding the survey, compared with 27% of non-Indigenous respondents.
Among the sexual minority respondents, 42% of bisexual and pansexual postsecondary faculty and researchers experienced harassment in their postsecondary institution, compared with 27% of heterosexual respondents.
Women respondents were generally more likely (73%) to take some form of action against their harasser than men respondents (65%). One exception involved cases of unwanted sexual attention or sexual harassment, where there was no difference between genders in taking action.
Sources: Hango, D. 2021. “Harassment and discrimination among faculty and researchers in Canada’s postsecondary institutions.” Insights on Canadian Society. July. Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 75-006-X; Statistics Canada, Survey of Postsecondary Faculty and Researchers, 2019.
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