Sexual harassment in accounting

A healthy workplace—and a productive one—is a workplace where all team members feel safe and comfortable. It’s vital that everyone demonstrates and receives respect. It’s therefore necessary to encourage open conversations surrounding sexual harassment at work. For accounting and finance professionals, these discussions are just as essential. 

Defining Sexual Harassment 

Sexual harassment takes many forms, but can be broadly defined as any unwelcome sexual advances—physical or verbal. 

Harassment in the workplace is complicated by power dynamics, where someone’s work performance, a promotion, and the working environment often depend on submission to or silence around sexual harassment.¹

Examples of sexual harassment in the workplace 

Because sexual harassment is any conduct that’s undesired by the recipient, it’s also very subjective and can manifest in any number of ways. These include:¹ 

All forms of sexual harassment create a hostile work environment, limiting team members’ ability to be themselves and do their jobs. 

Statistics of sexual harassment in accounting 

Sexual harassment exists throughout the accounting profession. And both men and women suffer from it. 

Studies in the area have uncovered these trends: 

• Both men and women are subject to sexual harassment 
• Women are more statistically susceptible than men to sexual harassment 
• Management’s views on sexual harassment correlate to incidents within an organization 
• How firms deal with sexual harassment is a predictor of whether there will be future occurrences² 
• 34% women in accounting have experienced sexual harassment³ 
• 70% of whistleblowers in sexual harassment cases were victimized or dismissed after reporting the offense⁴ 

From this data, it’s clear that the accounting and finance industry has work to do to eradicate sexual harassment, bring more equality to the workplace, and improve management’s efforts to discipline reported cases. 

Reporting sexual harassment at work 

Unfortunately, victims of sexual harassment at work tend to downplay, deny, or avoid the situation, rather than report it. To help combat this tendency, internal auditors often work with organizations to identify high-risk areas of harassment and create systems to minimize incidents, encourage proper reporting, and standardize response procedures when there is a reporting. 

Auditors can likewise advocate for a culture of transparency surrounding sexual harassment within the organization, and themselves report any suspicious behavior seen while performing the audit.⁵ 

If you have witnessed or experienced sexual harassment in your organization, it is extremely important that you report it to your supervisor or following your organization’s reporting protocol. 

Preventing sexual harassment in the workplace 

Prevention is the best approach to sexual harassment in the workplace. It is important that management takes sexual harassment training seriously, establishing a culture where the entire team holds that same mindset. 

An emphasis on this training shows that leadership cares about its employees and is willing to invest in establishing a positive and healthy workplace for everyone. Becker is dedicated to helping accounting firms and organizations create these safe workplaces and provides training through a wide variety of CPE courses, including, Sexual Harassment: Creating a Safe and Positive Workplace, and several state-specific sexual harassment prevention training courses.