Sixty percent of US women ‘sexually harassed’: poll

New York (AFP) – Sixty percent of US women voters say they have experienced sexual harassment and more than two-thirds of them said it happened at work, a nationwide poll revealed Tuesday.

The findings come as the United States grapples with sexual assault and harassment scandals that have rocked the world of entertainment, business and politics.

Only 20 percent of men voters said they had experienced sexual harassment, of whom 60 percent also said it happened at work, according to the Quinnipiac University survey.

Of those women who said they had experienced harassment, 69 percent said it happened at work, 43 percent in social settings, 45 percent on the street and 14 percent at home, the poll found.

Eighty-nine percent of respondents classified sexual harassment of women as a “serious problem” and 55 percent said media coverage of the flood of recent allegations had led to a better understanding of sexual harassment, the poll found.

Sixty-two percent said they thought people were more likely to be held accountable for sexual harassment following the recent allegations.

“A vast majority of American men and women are deeply troubled by sexual harassment and the numbers underscore why. A stunning six in ten women say they have been victimized,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. 

The survey was based on interviews with 1,415 voters between November 15–20 and carried a margin of error of 3.1 percent, Quinnipiac said.