3 out of 20 FCT women experience office rape ― Survey

Fifty-one per cent of women who work in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have said they have been subjected to one form of sexually based violence or the other in their various workplaces.

The submission which is the outcome of research findings by HEIR Women Development revealed that three out of 20 women admitted that they were raped in their offices.

The research, which set out to bring to the fore, the reality of gender-based violence in the workplace, pointed out that, a more worrisome discovery, from the report, was that 55% of women do not understand what constitutes sexual harassment.

Dr Obianuju O. Nnadozie, an economist from the University of Benin (UNIBEN), who lead the research team that sampled responses from 1000 women online and 60 women off-line said, 77% of the women complained about bullying in the workplace while 70% of women lamented what they described as inflexible work hours that formed advancement barriers to them.

Dr Obianuju shared the research findings at an HEIR Women validation meeting of the research findings at a zoom meeting.

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She said the findings called for an Empowerment of young women against sexual harassment, and support organizational coordination to ensure compliance with sexual harassment policies at workplaces in the Federal Capital Territory.

According to her: “Findings from the online survey and in-depth interviews suggests that sex is prevalent at the workplace in the FCT. Specifically, the online survey shows that:

“1 in 2 women (51%) reported that they have been sexually harassed at the workplace.

“More than 3 in 4 women (78%) have experienced verbal sexual harassment in the workplace.

“About 3 in 4 women (74%) reported that they have experienced cyber sexual harassment.

According to the research Sexual harassment is prevalent at workplaces in the FCT, Abuja and it can/should be addressed.

It continued that “there is little or no organisational measures/mechanisms and, where present, a lack of trust in the existing organisational measures that should address sexual harassment at workplaces in the FCT.”

It also noted that there exists a very limited understanding of the context of a safe working environment, gender-based standards and its importance.

In the light of the above, appropriate actions should be taken to enlighten young women against sexual harassment as well as encourage organisations existing measures and adopt, where necessary, best practices to harassment/career barriers at the workplace, the survey stated.

More findings on the report showed that 71% of women have experienced online stalking which the researcher pointed out was an emerging threat that must be looked into.