Jana Bruns, project manager at Statistics Estonia, said that sexual harassment is defined as unwelcome behavior from one person or persons to another person or persons which offends, humiliates or scares those targeted and which has sexual undertones.

In its survey, Statistics Estonia asked respondents to consider whether they had experienced behavior of this kind at any time during the course of their entire working life, both at current and previous workplaces.

Bruns noted that the survey's results are based on respondents' perceptions of inappropriate behavior, which may differ from person to person.

"What can seem sexually inappropriate and harassing to one person may not seem so to another," Bruns stressed.

On this basis, 11 percent of women who said that they had been harassed at some point added that this included unwelcome and unwanted sexual advances.

Among women who have worked at any point in their adult lives, 33 percent said they had experienced sexual harassment of some kind.

Women who reported experiencing sexual harassment at work said this most often consisted of inappropriate or lustful glances (18 percent of the total); obscene jokes or offensive remarks about their bodies or private lives made up 16 percent of the total.

Meanwhile 14 percent of women reported encountering unwanted physical contact, such as a forced closeness, a touching of body parts, unwanted attempts at kissing or hugging, in a workplace context.

Thirteen percent said they had faced unwanted advances via social media.

Bruns said there was a correlation between being harassed both outside and inside the workplace.

Bruns said: "More than a tenth, or 11 percent, of women who have experienced sexual harassment have also received unwanted sexual proposals in the workplace."

The survey results revealed another clear trend: The younger the respondents, the more likely they were to report having been the recipient of sexual harassment.

Among women aged 18–29, 53 percent said they had experienced workplace sexual harassment, compared with 17 percent among women aged 65–74.

Brun said this might in part be due to the passage of time, and more senior respondents not recalling incidents which may in fact have happened.

Also, shifts in social norms even in the past 30 years, as Estonia became independent and shed its Soviet legacy may have played their part.

Bruns said: "It is conceivable that unwanted behavior with sexual undertones was more tolerated in the past, and older respondents may not think to label such behavior as sexual harassment."

The case would be different with younger people, who might also be more willing to speak about topics which could have been considered taboo to previous generations.

Women with higher education qualifications reported having encountered sexual harassment the most (making up 39 percent of those who have experienced workplace sexual harassment).

Among women with secondary education only, the proportion was 31 percent, and among those with basic education, ie. who did not finish high school, the figure was 29 percent.

In cases of workplace sexual harassment, one-third (33 percent) of incidents involved harassment by a colleague, who was male, according to the survey.

Women have also experienced harassment from clients or customers who are male, and also students and even transport passengers, again all male (31 percent of the total).

Sixteen percent of women who have had reported experiences of this kind said they had been harassed by a male in a position of relative power, such as at a superior pay-grade or rank, or a supervisor or manager.

Fewer than 10 percent of reported cases involved a harasser from another demographic to the above.

At the same time, less than 1 percent of women who reported having experienced workplace harassment said they had reported this to the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) or other authority.

Ten percent of women who have experienced sexual harassment at work said they went on to discuss it with someone, mostly with a friend, family member, or co-worker.

The survey's results highlighted that women who have experienced sexual harassment at work perceive it as being a more common phenomenon in general than those who have not.

A total of 67 percent of women who reported having experienced sexual harassment said they considered it to be a highly unusual incident in the context of their workplace, while 19 percent said they found it somewhat unusual.

By comparison, of the women who had not reported experiencing harassment, 90 percent viewed it as highly unusual and 4 percent as somewhat unusual at their workplace.

A total of 17 percent of men said they had experienced sexual harassment at work.

Among men who have worked at any point in their adult lives, 17 percent said they had experienced sexual harassment at work.

The most common varieties of this concerned obscene jokes or offensive remarks about their bodies or their private life (9 percent).

Six percent of men reported facing inappropriate or lustful glances (6 percent).

Less than 5 percent of men who reported having experienced sexual harassment at work said they had other unwanted acts with sexual undertones, as referenced to in the survey, in places other than at work.

It also emerged that the younger the respondents, the more likely they were to have experienced sexual harassment.

Among men aged 18–29, 21 percent said they faced sexual harassment at work, compared with 10 percent among men aged 65–74.

No significant differences emerged between men on the basis of their education level.

Men respondents said they encountered workplace sexual harassment by another male colleague more than any other category of person (31 percent of those who have experienced harassment).

Men said they also experience harassment from female colleagues or co-workers, as well as from male clients, patients, students, or transport passengers.

Eight percent of men who have experienced harassment have been harassed by a male superior, and 6 percent by a female superior, according to the survey.

Bruns said: "We cannot directly compare the figures for men and women in this survey, but we do see that men are even less likely than women to talk about incidents of sexual harassment. Only 7 percent of men who have experienced sexual harassment had discussed it with anyone."

Men mostly share such incidents with friends, family members, or relatives. Men do not report workplace sexual harassment to the police or other authorities at all, Bruns said.

The data compiled by Statistics Estonia was based on the results of the largest and most comprehensive relationship survey conducted in Estonia in 2022.

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