Male-on-male sexual harassment high at Australian workplaces: study

Australian researchers have found male-on-male sexual harassment is higher then expected in an extensive investigation of all sexual harassment complaints in Australia.

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Prof. Paula McDonald told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Tuesday that male-on-male sexual harassment complaints in Australia's work places, which reflected 11 percent of all sexual harassment, included homosexual slurs and questioning a man's sexuality.

"There were taunts about apparently un-masculine conduct and appearance and insinuations that they were gay."

Researchers from QUT and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) investigated all sexual harassment complaints in a six month period logged in Australia's equal opportunity commissions, many of which were finalized in 2010.

Around 78 percent of the 282 complaints logged were men harassing their female colleagues.

Mcdonald said the figures about less typical cases of sexual harassment, such as men -on-men and women-on-women, were important to understand how to stop harassment.

McDonald and her research colleagues found the nearly 6 percent of cases of women-on -women harassment was hierarchical which supports the idea that women must behave in a masculine way to maintain authority.

Prof. McDonald said managers at all workplaces needed to be aware of the risk of sexual harassment and put measures in place to stop it.

"We can't be complacent about sexual harassment as an ongoing problem," McDonald said.

"It continues to manifest in a lot of different types of organizations, not only male-dominated one, which is often assumed. " Endi