Women who face “covert,” low-level sexism in the workplace risk as much psychological damage as those facing “overt” or obvious unwanted advances from male colleagues, a new study shows.
Bosses and managers are being urged to take a zero-tolerance approach to low-level sexism in the workplace, including jokes and damaging gossip, saying that the overall grind on women’s mental health can be as damaging as instances such as catcalling in the street. Business experts, conducting research at the University of Melbourne, found that over the course of 88 studies involving 74,000 women continual and repetitive low-level sexism was just as harmful as an overt incident. The researchers added that men who ranked women based on their attractiveness or who made comments about a female colleague’s gender could be responsible for deep psychological harm. Dealing with covert sexism in the workplace could affect women’s physical health by weakening their immune system, they said.
INC News, Schiedam, 28/08/2015 - via RT
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