Around half of young Australians had no understanding of what sexual harassment was when they embarked on their first jobs, federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner Anna Cody has said. or signup to continue reading Dr Cody is conducting consultations across Australia on workplace sexual harassment as part of the project for the Australian Human Rights Commission. She said the 18-year-olds interviewed said when they entered the workforce at 14, 15 or 16, they had no understanding of what constituted sexual harassment, did not understand their rights in the case of workplace sexual harassment, nor did they understand they could access free legal advice from community legal centres or legal aid.
"People don't know what sexual harassment is. That's shocking to me," she said. Dr Cody said: "[Despite] having had so much media coverage about it, people actually don't understand it .
.. don't understand the nuance of it.
" That includes remarks being explained away as a "joke ...
that's just how we do it". One in three Australians have been sexually harassed at work in the last five years. Preliminary feedback from the consultations said perpetrators often harass based on sexist, homophobic and racist stereotypes such as: "I thought all Asian women liked that.
" It was also important, said participants, not to normalise sexist behaviour and "small" comments, which may go on to become more serious. The responses reveal the important of continuing education, not only during workplace induc.