Migrant and Refugee Women’s Attitudes, Experiences and Responses to Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

Project team

Chief Investigators: Associate Professor Marie Segrave, Dr Shih Joo (Siru) Tan, Professor Rebecca Wickes, Dr Chloe Keel and Prabhapriya Bogoda Arachchige

Project contacts: Marie Segrave (marie.segrave@monash.edu) or Siru Tan (siru.tan@monash.edu)

Project partner: Harmony Alliance: Migrant and Refugee Women for Change

Project Advisory Group

  • Professional Migrant Women Group
  • AMES Australia
  • MindTribes
  • Settlement Services International
  • Department of Social Services
  • JobWatch
  • United Workers Union

Project funding
This project is funded through the 2021-2024 ANROWS Sexual Harassment Research Program.

About the project

This project is the first national study to capture migrant and refugee women’s experiences of sexual harassment in the workplace. It will undertake a national study to investigate migrant and refugee women’s understanding of, experiences and responses to sexual harassment. It builds on the knowledge that migrant and refugee women are more likely to be in precarious employment (i.e. non-permanent, casualised or contract labour) and that factors such as limited English proficiency, non-permanent visa status, race-based bias and discrimination, and disparate cultural expectations can contribute to the likelihood of experiencing work-based sexual harassment.

The project aims to:

  1. Build a detailed national picture of the experiences of a diverse group of migrant and refugee women with the view of informing more targeted engagement with women and workplaces regarding unacceptable workplace behaviour.
  2. Document the views and responses of different groups of migrant and refugee women to work-based sexual harassment, to identify strengths and weaknesses in current responses, training and education needs, and service gaps.
  3. Lay the groundwork for developing more informed and responsive systems that are attuned to the social and systemic factors that influence how women negotiate and respond to experiences of sexual harassment as bystanders and/or targets.

Project background

Migrant and refugee women  remain largely overshadowed in major national studies and national commitments to ending sexual harassment in the workplace, with ‘language spoken at home’ being the main variable to identify this specific sample of women. While past national studies on workplace sexual harassment have operationalised a behavioural understanding of sexual harassment, the list of behaviours was not grounded in migrant and refugee women’s understandings and definitions, which limits the capacity to understand what are the practices and behaviours migrant and refugee women would define as inappropriate and unacceptable. It is also well-established that this sample of women are vulnerable to sexual harassment, and face numerous barriers to reporting due to complex and intersectional factors including insecure work/visa, language proficiency, concerns about employment security and lack of information about rights. All of these lays the ground for responding to the call for data and knowledge on sexual harassment and migrant and refugee women. To address this gap, this research project will target a diverse group of women, looking across factors including English-language proficiency, citizenship/visa status, employment status and employment sector. This is especially critical given that nearly half of the adult population in Australia are overseas born citizens, permanent residents and temporary visa holders.

Research Design

This project adopts a multi-methods research design that combines an online survey, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with key women leaders and diverse groups of women across English language proficiency, citizenship/visa status, employment status and work settings. This approach will allow the research to capture the attitudes, experiences and responses of migrant and refugee women to work-based sexual harassment, and use these to develop new knowledge and recommendations.

The online survey will be launching on 9 August 2022.

The research is national in focus and project findings will be relevant to all Australian states and territories.

Media

Research Outputs

  • Dang, Emily; Joo, Shih; Keel, Chloe (2023). Accounting for the Diversity of Women’s Experiences in Surveys. Monash University. Online resource. https://doi.org/10.26180/24021552.v1