A colleague looking at another colleague's private partsor asking for sexual favors isn't always harassment, according to amajority of men, while two-thirds of women say it is. (Photo:Shutterstock)

Is it sexual harassment? The answer will depend onwhether you're a man or a woman, as well as your age, according toa recent wide-ranging U.S. survey that included questions onunwanted sexual advances in the workplace.

The responses, part of the American Family Survey that alsoincluded issues of marriage, children and public policy, showedthat younger people and men were less likely than older Americansand women to view something as harassment.

The polarity in the responses comes amid the #MeToo movement that's sparked discussion andreflection within corporations about how women are treated in theworkplace.

Related: The cost of unreported sexualharassment

One of the biggest gaps was in experience: 28 percent of mensaid they've had an inappropriate experience, compared to almostsix in 10 women, with women more likely to say the incidentsoccurred in the workplace, the report said.

More than a quarter of women said they've been sexually harassedby someone in a position of authority at school or work, comparedwith 12 percent of men. The reported instances of harassment werehigher among Democrats and those with at least a college degreeacross both genders, although the publishers didn't suggest anexplanation for that.

Sexual jokes

On the job, there's a stark difference in perceptions: acolleague looking at another colleague's private parts or askingfor sexual favors isn't always harassment, according to a majorityof men, while two-thirds of women say it is. Almost a third ofwomen think sexual jokes are considered harassment, while just 17percent of men do.

It also showed up in certain activities: about one in 20 women“always” perceive asking a colleague for lunch as harassment,compared with about one in 30 men. More than one in ten women saidcomments on appearance are harassment, versus less than that formen.

The one type of behavior that a majority of men termed sexualharassment was “persisting in unwanted attention.” Half of thesurvey respondents were asked to answer the following question:“Would you consider it sexual harassment if a man who was not aromantic partner did the following to a woman at work?” The otherhalf were provided exactly the reverse question, about a womantaking the action with respect to a man.

Age plays a role as well:two-thirds of those ages 65 and up think that asking for a sexualfavor always counts as sexual harassment, but the number fell toonly about half for young adults ages 18 to 29.

The pollsters also said politics factored into the equation,finding that supporters of President Donald Trump were “somewhatless likely to favor verbal consent” — though both sides of theaisle “overwhelmingly favor consent of some kind” for sex andintimate touching. About six in 10 Trump supporters said consentmust be verbal for sex, while it's closer to seven in 10 fornon-Trump supporters, for example.

The survey on the family in America was conducted in July byYouGov for the Salt Lake City newspaper Deseret News andthe Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at BrighamYoung University in Provo, Utah. A sample of 3,000 adultrespondents whose characteristics mirror those of the generalpopulation was used. The overall margin of error for the survey isplus or minus 1.9 percentage points.

Read more: 

• We must rethink sexual harassment preventiontraining
• Constructing a workplace environment that rejectssexual harassment
• Employees say they're still afraid to report sexualharassment

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