Media industry has highest prevalence of sexual harassment, finds Australian Human Rights Commission

I can certainly vouch for the scale of this. At least there is something tangible now. That’s pretty horrifying I must say. We’re way behind the 8 ball on all this and that old saying ‘Insanity is keeping on doing the same thing and expect a different result outcome’. It is time some radical shifts were made and more accountability.

This absolutely can only come from the CEO’s. As a business coach I learned that no matter how much the boss wanted me to come in and ‘fix the people’ or ‘fix the process’, without doubt it came back to the CEO every time. The CEO’s need to take charge of the fixing.

This problem indicates some serious issues that translate to bias in the way we work and the work we produce. I’m not sitting back any more that’s for sure. I’ve had my fair share of discrimination, stemming back to very recently in fact. Time for something different.

Great article with very tangible data to support what many of us have known for some time.

What’s also incredible is that this is on a huge sample – n=1201 for information, media and telecommunications.

That men and women within this industry are equal prevalence of sexual harassment should also be a big wake up call, especially if there is any digging into the differences of experiences between genders.

Who would have thought an industry full of egotists that run off poke bowls. alcohol and chronic Bondi marching powder consumption would foster a culture of sexual harassment?

Utterly unsurprising and completely unacceptable. This has to change.

So let me get this straight – and I’m not trying to be funny or clever here – more than 4 out of 5 men in this industry have been sexually harassed in the last 5 years? I actually find that really difficult to believe. And please don’t crucify me here.

So does a study like this, that finds such an extraordinarily and seemingly disproportionately high number of cases need to preface their results, or at least explain how the numbers are arrived at? Because it seems to me that without context, the figures will get dismissed by many is simply ludicrous. Which I have to admit was my first reaction. And perhaps it’s due to definition, I don’t know.

And please, before anyone jumps on me accusing me of blindness and white male privilege, just think for a second about that statistic. 4 out of the 5 men you and I know in the industry, have been sexually harassed.

Do you, dear reader, personally believe that 4 out of 5 men you know in this industry have been sexually harassed? Which then begs the question by whom?

I wondered if they ‘say’ they’ve been harassed, or does the study ‘define’ that they’ve been harassed? I couldn’t be make it out from the methodology which is available in a link.

Does showing a fellow male colleague an explicit picture he is uncomfortable about, get defined as sexual harassment? Because before we collectively get on our outrage boxes, we really should know exactly what we are getting outraged about.

I’d be interested to know what other people think. And ideally comments won’t descend into personal attacks and accusations. Unfortunately keyboard warriors are the death of intelligent and reasoned debate. And we all know that outrage is the currency of social media, but how can we have discussion about something so important if we just automatically take sides?

Cheers.

Last 5 years seem utterly improbable. If this was actually based on the period from 1985 to 1990 it would be no surprise. Those media department girls back then (and media was exclusively a female domain until the late 80’s) were complete predators when it came to any male under 25 roaming the agency corridors after a couple of glasses of Houghton’s Classic White.