2018 Sexual Harassment Research Survey Findings

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Introduction

For the last three years, Myanmar Women’s Self Defense Center in collaboration with Strong Flowers Sexuality Education Services has been collecting survey information from students that attend our full self defense classes on their personal experiences of sexual harassment. Over the last three years, over 300 people (primarily women) have taken our full self defense course, and attendants are required to complete the sexual harassment research survey before the start of the first class. The purpose of this survey is to give readers some insight into the kinds of harassment women face in Myanmar as well as help us as an organization understand the needs and experiences of the students attending our course. Sexual harassment is an unwelcome sexual advance, unwelcome request for sexual favours or other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature which makes a person feel offended, humiliated and/or intimidated, where a reasonable person would anticipate that reaction in the circumstances.

Sexual harassment is an unwelcome sexual advance, unwelcome request for sexual favours or other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature which makes a person feel offended, humiliated and/or intimidated, where a reasonable person would anticipate that reaction in the circumstances.

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Methodology and Data

The findings in this paper is based on a survey administered to 99 respondents who took the self-defense course between 2017 and 2018. As the survey covers only people who have taken our classes, we are working with a skewed sample in that participants are not only aware of our self defense center and voluntarily signed up to take our class but also can afford the MMK 40,00-50,000 fee to register for the class. The women who take our classes are between the ages of 13-45 and most have attained at least a high school education, or are currently in school. The sample may be biased from some form of self-selection, as many of the women who come to our classes attend due to personal experiences with sexual harassment. On the other hand, sexual harassment is consistently underreported in Myanmar due to lack of awareness and social stigma, especially among lower socio-economic groups. It is therefore also possible that our sample is under-representative.

The first section of the survey covers people’s experiences of different kinds of harassment as well as the earliest age at which they had these experiences; the second section covers people’s beliefs about harassment and their harassers; the third section covers what responses they believe are appropriate in responding to harassment.

In the Experiences section, the survey asked 10 questions to our respondents about negative sexual experiences including instances of harassment and assault. Three of those experiences can be considered verbal harassment, two of being shown unwelcome sights or images, and three of being touched sexually without consent.

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Research Findings

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Out of the total number of responses (N=98), only 18% of respondents say they have never had any experience of sexual harassment, while 82% have had one or more experiences of harassment. In cases of verbal harassment which includes sexual comments, jokes, and threats, 45% claim one or more such experiences. 23% of respondents claim they have had one or more experience of being forced to look at pornography or nudity. 26% claim one or more experiences where they were sexually touched without consent.

Research Introduction

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The spaces in which harassment is encountered is varied, with a majority of it occurring on public transport (30%) or in public places (25%). Only 10% of respondents report experiencing harassment online. This is relatively low, compared to a global survey where 4 in 10 internet users report experiencing harassment online. School and work accounted for 17% of harassing experiences, 8% of respondents report harassment at home, and 10% reported other unspecified places. These responses show us that most harassment experienced by women is perpetrated in public by strangers, while a significant portion of harassment occurs in environments supposedly “safe” for women like school, work, and home.

Research Findings

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Our survey found that most of the respondents report their first experience of sexual harassment before the age of 12 (29%). 24% report experiencing it between ages 13-15, 20% report harassment ages 16-18, and 27% report their first experience of harassment above the age of 18. This shows that over 73% of women report their first experience of sexual harassment before the age of 18. The women who attend our classes have an average age of 26, but report experiences of harassment that go back far earlier than their decision to come join our self defense class. Contrary to our estimation that perhaps younger age could account for those who had reported no harassing experiences, the respondents who reported no experiences of harassment whatsoever ranged from ages 14-55.

DISCUSSION & CONCLUSIONS

The implications of this survey, despite its limited scope, is potentially far reaching.This study has shown that of the students electing to take our self defense class, an overwhelming majority of them have had experiences of sexual harassment in many different places, including spaces that are generally considered “safe” like the school, workplace, and home. Furthermore, a huge number of young girls are experiencing harassment before the age of 18, and as early as under 12. Most respondents are affected by verbal harassment such as sexual jokes, comments, or threats, while physical contact including everything from groping to rape accounts for a quarter of all reported incidents.

This is the ongoing research activity on sexual harassment by MWSD in partners with Strong Flowers.