Why don’t people speak up about sexual harassment?

When it comes to sexual harassment on the job, there is often a delay in reporting. Someone may come forward and say that they were being harassed a year ago, for example. In some cases, others will then come forward and say the same thing happened to them, but it was years before.

Critics will often complain about this issue, asking why victims wouldn’t speak up right away. They may even imply that these victims are inventing their stories because they didn’t immediately make the report. But this is unfair to those victims, as delays are both common and expected for a variety of reasons.

Fear of retaliation

For example, many employees are worried about retaliation. If an employee is dependent on their job to make ends meet, and their boss is the one sexually harassing them, they may believe that they’ll be fired if they report it. They’re not willing to risk their employment, even though they know the behavior is wrong.

Lack of belief

In other cases, employees just don’t think anyone is going to believe them. They may even worry that they’ll be blamed for inviting the harassment or going along with it. They don’t want to make the report if no one‘s going to believe their story anyway.

Not knowing their rights

Finally, some employees don’t understand that they have a legal right to protection from retaliation. It’s illegal for an employer to fire someone for making a sexual harassment report, for instance. Employees may delay reporting just because they don’t know their rights, and that’s why it’s so important for them to look into exactly what options they have and what legal steps to take.

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