職場調查：女人爲難女人

More than half of women are bullied or harassed at work – often by members of their own sex, a major poll reveals on April 1.

Based on interviews with nearly 23,000 women and more than 2,000 men, the survey is the largest of its kind in the UK.

It reveals that the biggest enemy facing women in the office or other workplace is often other women, rather than their male colleagues.

Women who had been bullied by a member of their own sex said they felt they may have been targeted because their senior colleague felt threatened by their abilities.

The authors of the study said: ‘Women often experience bullying by female colleagues and line managers.

‘[This is] a point echoed by focus group participants who thought female bullies felt threatened by potential and ability and so exploited their position or authority to undermine.’

One in four women – all between the ages of 28 and 40 – said they had been undermined by a boss overloading them with work and constantly criticising them.

The same proportion said they had suffered from ‘over-bearing supervision or other misuse of power or position’.

One in eight said they had been sexually harassed – defined as ‘unwelcome comments of a sexual nature’.

This includes unwanted physical contact or leering, asking for sexual favours, displaying offensive material such as posters, or sending offensive emails or texts of a sexual nature.

The research was commissioned by the women’s campaign group Opportunity Now and accountants PwC.

Helena Morrissey, a mother of nine and chairman of Opportunity Now, said: ‘Women have told us they are ambitious, confident and feel supported by their partners in their career aspirations.

They feel much less encouraged by their employers, however, both in respect of career development and the workplace culture, where bullying and harassment are still prevalent.’

One man who took part in the Project 28-40 research said: ‘Senior males in my office are known for going after the younger women.

‘It is a joke [but] goes on too much for that to be acceptable.’

The biggest enemy facing women in the office or other workplace is often other women, rather than their male colleagues, the study says.

One woman, who was not named, spoke of her own experience of being bullied at work. ‘Bullying will always happen – but there needs to be an effective and open way of dealing with it,’ she said.

‘In mishandling what happened to me so badly, the organisation completely destroyed my faith in it and any belief I had that such a situation would not happen again.’

Young women, such as those in their twenties who have not yet had children, said they were ‘pessimistic’ about their ability to combine a career and a family life.

Around three in four women said they were ‘nervous about the impact that having children will have on their career.’ By comparison, only a third of men said they were worried.

The findings come after official figures showed that women under the age of 40 now earn almost exactly the same as men for the first time in history.

In a landmark moment, the pay gap has narrowed so dramatically since 1997 that it is ‘at or around zero’.

In 1997, a woman in her 30s with a full-time job typically earned 11 percent less than a man. Today the gap stands at just 1 per cent.

Lord Mervyn Davies, the Government’s equality tsar, has said it is unacceptable for firms not to have a woman in the boardroom.

Under the Government’s voluntary code, which he masterminded, 25 percent of directors in the FTSE 100 should be women by 2015. At present, the figure is 20.7 percent.英國一份民意調查4月1日揭示：有超過一半的女性在工作場所受到欺負或騷擾，而欺辱她們的往往都是女性。

此次民調是英國就此類問題開展調查規模最大的一次，有近2.3萬名女性和2000多名男性接受了問訪。

民調結果顯示，女性在辦公室或其他工作場所最大的敵人不是男性同事，而是其他女性職員。

在職場受到欺辱的女性稱：她們感覺到遭受欺辱的原因是她們的工作能力威脅到了職場上的資深女性同事。

這項研究的作者稱：“女性常常有被女同事和女性管理者欺負的經歷，這個觀點也迎合了參與者中典型受欺負羣體的心聲，即她們的潛質和能力讓資深女同事們感受到了威脅，從而促使了這些職場資深女同事們會利用職權或權威先發制人。”

28歲到40歲的女性中有四分之一的人稱她們曾被女上司“穿小鞋”，或者老是被訓斥。同樣也有四分之一的女性稱她們曾被女上司過度監管，或者淪爲職權濫用的犧牲品。有八分之一的人稱她們曾遭受過性騷擾，不過這種騷擾被定性爲一種"不受歡迎的性言論"。

此次調查受婦女運動組織即時機遇與普華永道會計事務所(Opportunity Now and accountants Pwc)共同委託，爲9個孩子母親的即時機遇組織主席海倫娜模裏西（Helena Morrissey)說：“職場女性告訴我們，她們有抱負、有自信，同時在職場生涯裏感受到了來自父母們的支持。但她們的上司卻讓她們垂頭喪氣，無論是在工作前途上還是在職場文化中，欺辱現象仍很猖獗。”

一位參加了28到40歲年齡組受訪的男性稱：“我辦公室資深的男性都喜好追年輕的女性職員，大家都知道這個祕密，雖然被當做笑談，但卻有點過頭了，讓人難以接受。”

研究稱：女性在辦公室或其他工作場所最大的敵人常常不是男同事，而是她們的女性同僚。

一位沒有給出姓名的女性講出了她在工作場所受欺負的經歷，她說：“欺負常常發生，但是需要一個有效的、公開的辦法來對付。由於我處理不當，從而徹底地摧毀了我對工作單位的信心，也讓我原本以爲此類事情不會再次發生的信念蕩然無存。”

那些20出頭還沒有孩子的年輕女性對她們如何有能力處理好家庭和事業的關係時表示了悲觀情緒。對有孩子後會對工作造成衝擊這個問題上，約有四分之三的女性表示很緊張。相比之下只有三分之一的男性表示了擔憂。

英國官方數字顯示目前40歲以下的女性工資收入和男性持平，官方稱這是一個地標性的時刻，自1997年後男女收入差距縮小是如此引人注目，差距率等於或大約爲零，屬於史上首次，而這一民調結果的公佈則緊隨其後。

1997年，30多歲的全職女性大體上要比男性工資少11%，而如今這一差距下降到了僅1%。

莫文•戴維斯勳爵是政府平衡法的泰斗，他曾說過，公司董事會會議室裏沒有女性入座簡直讓人不能接受。莫文還策劃了政府的自律守則（voluntary code)，該守則規定，到2015年女性要佔富時100指數公司董事席位的25%，而目前，這一數字僅爲20.7%。