Family, domestic and sexual violence in Australia: continuing the national story 2019

Purpose/description

The objectives of the Australian Human Rights Commission’s (AHRC) 2018 National Survey on Sexual Harassment were to collect data about:

• the prevalence and nature of sexual harassment experienced at any time or anywhere
• the prevalence and nature of sexual harassment experienced in the workplace
• the perpetrators of workplace sexual harassment
• characteristics of workplaces where harassment occurs
• the industries where harassment occurs
• the reporting of workplace sexual harassment and the outcomes of complaints
• the impacts of workplace sexual harassment on those who experience it
• the responses of people who witnessed or heard about sexual harassment in their workplaces, and
• Australians’ levels of awareness of where they can access information about sexual harassment.

Scope and coverage

The Survey collected data from men and women aged 15 and over. The sample was representative of the Australian population in terms of age, sex and area of residence.  

Survey respondents were given a simplified legal definition of sexual harassment and asked if they had ever been sexually harassed. Respondents were then provided with a list of behaviours likely to constitute sexual harassment (see below) and asked if they had experienced any of these behaviours.

The survey was distributed by either online or telephone format. About 40% of respondents were surveyed by telephone and 60% online. Respondents interviewed by telephone were drawn by random digit dialling, which recruited individuals with a fixed landline telephone. Given the increasing number of households without a landline connection, mobile telephone numbers were also included in the sample, and were drawn through Roy Morgan Research’s Single Source Database, which contains 326,000 mobile numbers confirmed to be current residential numbers.  The online survey respondents were randomly drawn from the Roy Morgan Online Panel, which has over 189, 000 aged over 15 and closely reflects the demographic characteristics of the general population.  

For participants under the age of 18, permission from a parent or guardian was required. Parents and guardians were allowed to be present at the telephone interview, and were given the option to withdraw permission after the online interview if they wanted their child’s submission to be withdrawn from the survey. The need for parental permission may have resulted in a possible sampling bias for respondents under the age of 18. 

The simplified definition of sexual harassment provided to survey respondents was based on the legal definition in section 28A of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) and stated:

Sexual harassment is an unwelcome sexual advance, unwelcome request for sexual favours or other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature which, in the circumstances, a reasonable person, aware of those circumstances, would anticipate the possibility that the person would feel offended, humiliated or intimidated.

The list of behaviours likely to constitute sexual harassment, which survey respondents were also asked about, was:

• unwelcome touching, hugging, cornering or kissing
• inappropriate staring or leering that made you feel intimidated
• sexual gestures, indecent exposure or inappropriate display of the body
• sexually explicit pictures, posters or gifts that made you feel offended
• repeated or inappropriate invitations to go out on dates
• intrusive questions about your private life or physical appearance that made you feel offended.

FDSV definitions

The simplified definition of sexual harassment provided to survey respondents was based on the legal definition in section 28A of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) and stated:

Sexual harassment is an unwelcome sexual advance, unwelcome request for sexual favours or other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature which, in the circumstances, a reasonable person, aware of those circumstances, would anticipate the possibility that the person would feel offended, humiliated or intimidated.

The list of behaviours likely to constitute sexual harassment, which survey respondents were also asked about, was:

• unwelcome touching, hugging, cornering or kissing
• inappropriate staring or leering that made you feel intimidated
• sexual gestures, indecent exposure or inappropriate display of the body
• sexually explicit pictures, posters or gifts that made you feel offended
• repeated or inappropriate invitations to go out on dates
• intrusive questions about your private life or physical appearance that made you feel offended
• sexually explicit comments made in emails, SMS messages or on social media
• inappropriate physical contact
• repeated or inappropriate advances on email, social networking websites or internet chat rooms
• being followed, watched or someone loitering nearby
• sexually suggestive comments or jokes that made you feel offended
• sharing or threatening to share intimate images or film without your consent
• indecent phone calls, including someone leaving a sexually explicit message on voicemail or an answering machine
• requests or pressure for sex or other sexual acts
• actual or attempted rape or sexual assault
• any other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature that occurred online or via some form of technology.

For more information, visit Everyone’s business: Fourth national survey on sexual harassment in Australian workplaces.