What does sexual harassment look like?
Sexual harassment can include a wide range of behaviours:
- Verbal harassment such as sexual or suggestive comments, comments about somebody’s body or appearance, and name calling.
- Sexual jokes or innuendos, gestures, noises such as wolf-whistling, and spreading sexual rumours.
- Personal questions about someone’s sex life, preferences and history.
- Unwanted touching or physical contact. Unwanted flirting and sexual advances.
- Stalking sexual assault or rape.
- Indecent exposure or ‘flashing’, cyberflashing, upskirting or downblousing
What can you do?
If you feel confident, call out the behaviour. It is more likely people around you will support you when they are alerted.
If you are not confident and are experiencing consistent sexual harassment, download the log form from the CWU website and make a note of each incidence. When you feel ready, approach your union or employer with the evidence. Contact your union anyway to receive support during this challenging time - https://education.cwu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/6916-A4-Sexual-Harassment-log-form-oct-23.pdf
Check out the members toolkit created by the CWU to gain a further understanding of sexual harassment - https://education.cwu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/07048-CWU-Sexual-Harassment-Toolkit-for-members-A5-v1-002.pdf
You can use this template letter to report any incidence/s - https://education.cwu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/697204-Template-Harassment-Letter-A4-oct-23.pdf
Who is there for me?
Your local union – The women’s officer, equality officer, LGBTQ+ officer, BAME officer https://gwestern.co.uk/contact/
Various charities such as Galop (https://www.galop.org.uk/), The Survivors Trust (https://thesurvivorstrust.org/) and Victim Support (https://www.victimsupport.org.uk/).
For legal advice to understand your rights and options, employees can contact the ACAS helpline - https://www.acas.org.uk/sexual-harassment/get-help-and-support
Free legal advice can be given by Rights of Women - https://www.rightsofwomen.org.uk/
To talk to someone 24/7 use the Samaritans - https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/
