In a workplace, it is common to face problems like a conflict between coworkers, lack of job-related accountability, a lousy manager, or ineffective employee recognition but the real and major problem is left unsaid. But actually, women care more about workplace safety.
Do you know one in third of women in the workplace faces sexual harassment? Women may face other discrimination that they can empower through.
But for sexual harassment, we as a whole team have to solve it. It has been a never-ending problem not only in Malaysia sadly enough it is a worldwide problem. It’s hard to find a safe workplace, especially for women.
But tell me are you sure the women in your workplace are safe? 90% of you will answer no. Because if it is safe they won’t be facing any kind of problem in the workplace.
So we are here to discuss 4 things; Which is
- What is sexual harassment?
- Statistics of sexual harassment
- How to create a safe workplace for women?
- How to get help?
Meaning of Sexual Harassment
According to Wikipedia Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favours.
Sexual harassment includes a range of actions from verbal transgressions to sexual abuse or assault. Harassment can occur in many different social settings such as the workplace, the home, school, churches, etc. Harassers or victims may be of any gender.
There is more type of sexual harassment depending on the situation like :
- Requesting unwanted sexual favour
- Unwelcomed touching or physical contact
- Physical acts of sexual assault.
- Verbal harassment
- Unwanted sexual advances.
- Discussing sexual stories or fantasies
- Exposing oneself to sexual acts on oneself.
- Unwanted sexual photos, emails, or text messages
Statistic of Sexual Harassment
Image via The ASEAN Post
Sexual harassment is not a joke. as you can see each year the case of reported sexual harassment increases. This is because some women may feel unsafe for reporting. As more victims start to make report others will feel comfortable seeking help.
The victim is most likely to face depression, use, unsafe, and a lot of negative emotions. it is important to take action to avoid this incident to repeat.
How to Create a Safe Workplace for Women?
1. Create awareness
The first and fare most important thing are to create awareness. Make a clear statement that the company has zero tolerance for sexual harassment at the workplace. The consequences of sexual harassment must an immediate termination.
According to section 81E employment act (1) Where the Director-General decides under subsection 81D(4) that sexual harassment is proven, the complainant may terminate his contract of service without notice.
Make sure the message is loud and clear to everyone in the company. So that everyone will be able to understand where the person’s limit ends.
This means the company can conduct an anti-sexual harassment campaign among the workers. or the company also can mention the consequence of the said action.
Image via Canva
2. Design the Workplace for Safety
Let’s be honest it’s not like sexual harassment is not news for everyone. everyone knows that sexual harassment is a big no-no. But the number of cases is not going any less. To create a safe workplace for everyone you can position a CCTV Camera at certain places in which you don’t usually position CCTV Camera.
Place the CCTV Camera in blind corners and less crowded places like hallways, outside of the toilet, lunchroom or cafeteria, in this way, the camera will be monitored by the HR of the company.
CCTV Cameras like HD CVI Camera allows monitoring just from a regular handphone. This makes the process much easier.
Image via Canva
CCTV cameras can play an important role in creating evidence. Which makes it easier for the victim to log in to the report.
In case of a fake report, the CCTV Camera also will play a major part in this. Some people may take the right as a privilege and use it for their own good.
This is wrong and the only way to prevent this from happening is by install CCTV cameras in the right place and treat the case equally.
There is a lot of reasons to install CCTV Camera, Preventing sexual harassment is one of them.
3. Appoint More Female Workers
Appointing female workers is not a hard job since there is more female graduate student compared to male.
Image via the Department of Statistics Malaysia Official Portal
When there are more female workers than males it will create a safe environment for female workers. A bod of same-sex is usually strong and more understandable, which helps the female workers to be bold.
This is another easy way to create a safe environment for women in the workplace. But what if you cannot avoid having male workers?
4. Educate your Male Employees
Some might take sexual harassment as a simple thing but you have the responsibility to educate your male employee. The things that will need to cover will be :
- What is Considered Sexual Harassment?
- The Effect on the Victim
- The Consequence
Image via Canva
This way you can explain the things that they even don’t know yet.
Another fun way to educate the male employee is by doing team building.
This will help make the employee get close to know each other which will eliminate the chances of sexual harassment.
5. Self-Defense
If we cannot prevent or avoid something t0 from happening it’s time to take charge. Let the women solve the problem by themselves. But all you got to do is provide them with pepper spray and a self-defence lesson.
The pepper spray will help to cause a sense of burning and irritation to the attacker’s eye. This will last about 15 minutes or up to 24 hours. this is enough time for the victim to escape. Arrange a self-defence lesson to learn some basic moves to escape from the attacker.
Image via Canva
You can also prepare a special room for the victim. A room that will have a door access control and the pin will be only known by the women in the office. The room may contain a hiding space, water, an emergency landline, and a pillow to calm down.
How to get help?
For those who are facing Sexual Harassment at work, you can seek help by meeting up with the Human Resource of the company. But if you are worried of they won’t take any reasonable action or if they never take any action means feel free to contact the authority like:
Police or ambulance on 999
All Women’s Action Society
- (counselling, legal information, case management)
- Telenet helpline: 03-7877-0224
- Email: telenita@awam.org.my
Sabah Women’s Action Resource Group
- SAWO Helpline: 088-280200
- sawo.women@yahoo.com
Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO)
- (counselling, case management, shelter)
- WAO Hotline: 03 7956 3488
- WhatsApp: 018 988 8058 (24 hours hotline).
Women’s Centre for Change Penang
- Tel: 04-228 0342
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