A female-focused social enterprise, HEIR Women Development, has urged the Federal Government and other stakeholders to intensify efforts in addressing the prevalence of gender and sexual based violence as well as harassment in workplaces.
The Executive Director of the organisation, Anuli Ola-Olaniyi, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Monday, in Abuja, said that a survey gathered from a research by HEIR Women Development and Ford Foundation exposed the level of gender based violence experienced by young working class women in the FCT.
According to her, 78 per cent of young women working in the Federal Capital Territory experience verbal sexual harassment in the form of obscene jokes and humours about sex.
She added that about another three in four women experience online stalking/ unwanted phone calls, messages and emails of sexual nature.
“The research is one of the activities under the project, ‘Career barriers and workplace sexual harassment against young women between ages 18 and 35 in the FCT, carried out with support from Ford Foundation.
“We have an actual data that exposes that there is the prevalence of sexual harassment in work places and also discovered that sexual harassment policies that should protect women are almost non-existent.
“There is need for the Federal Government and other organisations to intensify efforts and provide strategies that would checkmate sexual harassment against women in the work place,” Ola-Olaniyi said.
Dr. Obianuju Nnadozie of the Department of Economics, University of Benin, stressed the need to set up and strengthen machinery that would control the constant sexual harassment of women in the work place.
Nnadozie explained that the report/survey showed that seven in 10 women (68 per cent) reported that they had experienced persistent and unwanted invitations of sexual nature at their workplace.
She stressed that 57 per cent translated at close to three in five women had experienced physical sexual harassment like unwelcomed physical contact-touching, deliberate pinching etc.
She said that about three in 20 women, which is 14 per cent of the respondents, alleged that they were raped at workplaces.
Nnadozie added that bullying/intimidation was the most common type of barriers young women face at the workplaces as identified by 76 per cent of the respondents in the survey.
The don stressed that other barriers included inflexible work hours which is 70 per cent on the chat and mismatch of job placement and skills.
She also said that there was lack of organisational support for females returning to work after maternity leave.
According to her, there is an absolute need for the government at all level and private organisation to set up action against constant sexual harassment of women in workplaces.
(NAN).
