Can men be victims of sexual harassment?

On Behalf of | Dec 24, 2018 | Employment Discrimination |

If you have ever suffered from unwelcome sexual comments or advances while working, you may be familiar with being a victim of sexual harassment. Sadly, this isn’t uncommon in workplaces across various industries in the United States. According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 13,055 claims of sexual harassment were filed in 2018 alone. Surprisingly, 15.9 percent of these claims were made by male workers. Sexual harassment was once thought of as actions of men harassing women. Yet, as these statistics show, the tables are turning with more men claiming to be victims of harassment. Whether this behavior has occurred for quite some time and men have not wanted to report the incidents out of fear of embarrassment or the rate of incidents have increased over the years, people are becoming more aware of men being victims of harassment.

One reason for this increase may be a rise of women holding higher positions in companies throughout the country. The number of women working in America has increased significantly when compared the number of women working 60 years ago. Women hold a significant number of managerial positions, and often times have many workers reporting to them. This puts women in a situation where they are able to sexually harass men. Women superiors may ask men to perform acts in order to keep their positions or in order to work their way up the corporate ladder. They may also make inappropriate comments in an attempt to flirt while on-the-job. All of these matters involve sexual harassment and may be reported to the EEOC.

This information is intended to educate and should not be taken as legal advice.

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