‘We still have a way to go when it comes to levelling the playing field’
Nearly three in 10 men (28 per cent) around the world — and 18 per cent in Canada — think it’s acceptable to tell jokes or stories of a sexual nature at work, according to a global survey to mark International Women’s Day.
That’s compared to 16 per cent of women globally — including 10 per cent in Canada — finds the survey of more than 20,000 people in 27 countries released by the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London and Ipsos MORI.
Globally, more than one in eight men (13 per cent) said displaying sexual content at work is acceptable, compared to seven per cent of women. In Canada, that breaks down to eight per cent of men and four per cent of women.
Impact on career
The survey found major differences between men and women when it came to the following choices having a negative impact on their careers:
“We still have a way to go when it comes to levelling the playing field, especially in the workplace,” says Kelly Beaver, managing director of Ipsos MORI public affairs. “People feel women’s careers are significantly more at risk then men’s if they turn down a romantic advance, if they talk about their family life or don’t take part in social activities with colleagues. However, there are some real positives coming through from the data, such as over half of men feeling confident to call people out if they make sexist comments.”
Encouragingly, 60 per cent of men and 48 per cent of women in Canada say they are confident they would tell off a senior colleague who makes a sexist comment, while 69 per cent of men and 61 per cent of women would do the same with a junior colleague.
