Leaders in Danish companies and organisations may have underestimated the extent of the problem with sexism and harassment, but they now have a unique opportunity to change the culture if they are willing to take responsibility for the necessary change. “We certainly do not suppress or harass anyone at our workplace.” The recent development has made a statement such as this sound hollow. Leaders across the country have looked on stunned as protests from their own and other employees have laid bare the extent of sexism and abusive behaviour. Enough has had enough and have started to give voice to their frustrations. 1,615 women from the media industry and more than 750 women from Denmark’s universities have thus signed a petition on abusive behaviour. Add to this 322 politicians, 284 from unions and almost 800 signatures from doctors. 15% of Denmark’s nurses stated that they had experienced abusive behaviour, and in the Danish Armed Forces, they now have more than 100 cases on abusive behaviour. In a new survey from KVINFO, 44.5% of female respondents in the IT industry answered that they had experienced abusive behaviour, and in a study from 2020, every fourth member of the union HK answered that they had experienced e.g. unwanted touches, inappropriate looks, dirty jokes or sexual comments. And unfortunately, we could go on like is with examples and data. The point is that we now know that abusive behaviour is an issue at basically all workplaces, probably also at yours. WHAT OFFENDS? Sexism means “discrimination due to gender”, and sexual harassment and abusive behaviour covers a wide range of actions with the common denominator that they are not wanted by the recipient. And consequently hurts the welfare of the person at the receiving end. It does not matter if we are talking derogatory comments, exclusion and bullying, sexual harassment or direct physical assault or threats. Sexism and abusive behaviour at the workplace can take many shapes, and sexism can even be the reason behind a gender imbalance in the management team or with respect to who gets a raise. Perhaps the broad spectrum of abusive behaviour is part of the reason why many leaders have not noticed the extent of the problem, simply because some of the abusive behaviour has gone unnoticed.
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