The prevalence of sexual harassment in Norway: a rapid review
Systematic review
|Published
The Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs has commissioned the Norwegian Institute of Public Health to conduct a review of the prevalence of sexual harassment in Norway.
Key message
The Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs has commissioned the Norwegian Institute of Public Health to conduct a review of the prevalence of sexual harassment in Norway. Additionally, they wanted information on who the harassers are, who is being harassed and the consequences of sexual harassment, focusing on the arenas: work life, education, culture and leisure time, online/digital.
We conducted a rapid review: a review conducted within a short timeframe and with simplified steps. For example, we did not assess the studies’ methodological quality. The literature search identified 1470 publications, of which we read 179 in full text. Ultimately, we included 15 surveys (presented in 16 publications). The main results were:
- The prevalence of sexual harassment varies between different professions: from app. 1% among engineers to app. 20% among nurses.
- Women are more exposed to sexual harassment than men, in all four arenas.
- Younger people are more exposed than older.
- The harassers are mostly male.
- Among harassed men, the perpetrator is mostly female.
- Being sexually harassed might lead to experiencing lower satisfaction in life, discomfort, dissatisfaction at the workplace og resignation from work.
Sexual harassment is widespread and occurs in all four arenas (work life, education, culture and leisure time, online/digital). Public authorities and other sectors should work systematically to prevent and reduce the prevalence.
