A survey conducted by USA Today found that 94 per cent of women employed in the U.S. film industry have experienced sexual harassment at some point in their careers.
The 843 women surveyed work across a variety of roles — producers, actors, writers, directors, editors — with the publication working in partnership with The Creative Coalition, Women in Film and Television, and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center to ask them about their experiences.
They found that 87 per cent of the respondents said they’ve had “unwelcome sexual comments, jokes or gestures” thrown at them, while 75 per cent said they’ve witnessed others experiencing unwanted forms of sexual comments.
69 per cent then said they’d been “touched in a sexual way,” while 65 per cent said they’ve “witnessed others advance professionally from sexual relationships with their employer or managers.”
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64 per cent admitted to being “propositioned for a sexual act/relationship,” while 39 per cent claim they’ve been “shown sexual pictures without consent.”
29 per cent said they’d had someone “flash or expose themselves,” while 21 per cent said they’d been “forced to do a sexual act”; 10 per cent were “ordered unexpectedly to appear naked for auditions.”
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The website also stated only one in four of these women reported their experiences to anyone because of fear of personal or professional backlash or retaliation.
Only 28% added that their workplace situation had improved once they’d reported the abuse. The survey was conducted online between December 4, 2017, and January 14, 2018.
USA Today acknowledged that the sample was self-selecting, but Anita Raj, director of the Center for Gender Equity and Health at the University of California, San Diego’s medical school, insisted the numbers were “credible.”
“The percentages are higher than what we typically see for workplace abuses, but we know there is variation by the type of workplace.
“But it makes sense to me that we would see higher numbers (in the entertainment industry) where the ‘casting couch’ has prevailed for decades and is considered ‘normal’.”
