Faced with sexual harassment at work, the law of silence always reigns. This is the sad observation of a Triennial study by the South Korean Ministry of Gender Equality and the Family, carried out with more than 19,000 employees of public institutions and private companies relayed by numerous local media, including Korea Herald. It reveals that 75.2% of the victims preferred to remain silent, an increase of 8.5 points compared to 2021.
This persistence of silence paradoxically coexists with a slight improvement in statistics. Indeed, 4.3% of workers say they have suffered at least one form of sexual harassment in the past three years, compared to 4.8% in 2021 and 8.1% in 2018. Unsurprisingly, women remain the main victims (6.1%), ahead of men (3%), adds The Korea Times.
This overall drop, however, masks worrying disparities. If the private sector recorded a notable decline, from 4.3% to 2.9%, public institutions see cases of harassment jump from 7.4% to 11.1%. An increase that South Korean experts attribute to the resumption of face-to-face work after the Cavid-19 pandemic.
Multiple faces of sexual harassment
Despite the return to the office, the investigation reveals a disturbing digitalization of sexual and sexist violence in the professional sphere. The proportion of online harassment – via messaging, social networks or discussion groups – climbed to 7.8%, or 3.1 points more than in 2021. A drift directly linked to the explosion of telework and professional hyperconnection. However, traditional spaces are nevertheless the privileged theaters of these violence. Offices and corporate dinners alone concentrate more than 70% of cases of sexual harassment at work.
Behind these statistics hide various realities. Sexual comments on physical appearance (3.2%), Grivois jokes (1.5%) or the obligation to serve to drink or sit alongside someone during professional gatherings (0.8%) are among the most frequent. In half of the cases, the authors are hierarchical superiors or older colleagues, and 80.4% are men.
This persistence of silence is rooted in a professional culture still marked by the traditional hierarchy. In South Korea, respect for seniors and superiors remains a social pillar, particularly significant in public institutions where subordination reports are formalized. This deference is expressed with particular acuity during the famous corporate dinners, ritualized moments when hierarchical codes are strengthened. The obligation to serve alcohol for superiors, the placement imposed on the table, the tacit tolerance of the overflows are as many illustrations.
In this context, questioning the authority or breaking the harmony of the group by denouncing inappropriate behavior is taboo. The group’s cohesion often takes precedence over personal protection, explaining why witnesses and victims prefer silence to confrontation.
The reasons for silence
These cultural mechanisms shed light on the results of the survey on the causes of silence. More than half of the victims (52.7%) believe that the situation was “not serious enough” to justify an internal report. A third party fears an embarrassing situation with the author of the facts, while 27.4% do not trust their organization to react appropriately.
These fears are not unfounded. Among the victims who crossed the heading of reporting, only 27.4% benefited from support or advice, 17.5% saw a formal survey triggered, and 16.2% obtained a separation or reallowing of the author of the facts. Even more disturbing, 12.3% of the victims suffered reprisals in the form of malicious rumors, which perpetuates the vicious circle of Omerta.
The indifference of witnesses worsens the problem. More than 40% of people who attended scenes of sexual harassment or reprisals at their workplace have taken no measures to stop the situation. This passivity strengthens the isolation of the victims and perpetuates a climate of impunity.
On the side of professionals responsible for processing these files, the challenges remain considerable. Questioned separately, 2685 advisers point to work overload and lack of expertise as major obstacles. Many combine several functions without dedicated training or sufficient resources.
Signs of hope
Fortunately, these deep mechanisms are starting to be questioned. The proportion of employees who trust their business to treat cases of sexual harassment at work fairly climbed to 88.7%, an increase of 15.5 points. Similarly, 80.8% of survey respondents claim that their workplace has sexual harassment prevention guidelines, compared to 68.7% previously.
Despite their difficulties, 78.5% of advisers say they have submitted recidivism prevention measures to the Ministry of Gender Equality and the Family after an incident, an increase of 2.2 points. This proportion even reaches 84.9% in public institutions, a spectacular increase of 47.1 points.
Between tradition and modernity, South Korea is still struggling to break the wall of silence surrounding sexual violence at work. If mentalities are gradually evolving, the path to real professional equality is strewn with deep cultural pitfalls.