职场调查：女人为难女人

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 2017. At present, the figure is 20.7 percent.

英国一份民意调查4月1日揭示：有超过一半的女性在工作场所受到欺负或骚扰，而欺辱她们的往往都是女性。

此次民调是英国就此类问题开展调查规模最大的一次，有近2.3万名女性和2000多名男性接受了问访。

民调结果显示，女性在办公室或其他工作场所最大的敌人不是男性同事，而是其他女性职员。

在职场受到欺辱的女性称：她们感觉到遭受欺辱的原因是她们的工作能力威胁到了职场上的资深女性同事。

这项研究的作者称：“女性常常有被女同事和女性管理者欺负的经历，这个观点也迎合了参与者中典型受欺负群体的心声，即她们的潜质和能力让资深女同事们感受到了威胁，从而促使了这些职场资深女同事们会利用职权或权威先发制人。”

28岁到40岁的女性中有四分之一的人称她们曾被女上司“穿小鞋”，或者老是被训斥。同样也有四分之一的女性称她们曾被女上司过度监管，或者沦为职权滥用的牺牲品。有八分之一的人称她们曾遭受过性骚扰，不过这种骚扰被定性为一种"不受欢迎的性言论"。

此次调查受妇女运动组织即时机遇与普华永道会计事务所(Opportunity Now and accountants Pwc)共同委托，为9个孩子母亲的即时机遇组织主席海伦娜模里西（Helena Morrissey)说：“职场女性告诉我们，她们有抱负、有自信，同时在职场生涯里感受到了来自父母们的支持。但她们的上司却让她们垂头丧气，无论是在工作前途上还是在职场文化中，欺辱现象仍很猖獗。”

一位参加了28到40岁年龄组受访的男性称：“我办公室资深的男性都喜好追年轻的女性职员，大家都知道这个秘密，虽然被当做笑谈，但却有点过头了，让人难以接受。”

研究称：女性在办公室或其他工作场所最大的敌人常常不是男同事，而是她们的女性同僚。

一位没有给出姓名的女性讲出了她在工作场所受欺负的经历，她说：“欺负常常发生，但是需要一个有效的、公开的办法来对付。由于我处理不当，从而彻底地摧毁了我对工作单位的信心，也让我原本以为此类事情不会再次发生的信念荡然无存。”

那些20出头还没有孩子的年轻女性对她们如何有能力处理好家庭和事业的关系时表示了悲观情绪。对有孩子后会对工作造成冲击这个问题上，约有四分之三的女性表示很紧张。相比之下只有三分之一的男性表示了担忧。

英国官方数字显示目前40岁以下的女性工资收入和男性持平，官方称这是一个地标性的时刻，自1997年后男女收入差距缩小是如此引人注目，差距率等于或大约为零，属于史上首次，而这一民调结果的公布则紧随其后。

1997年，30多岁的全职女性大体上要比男性工资少11%，而如今这一差距下降到了仅1%。

莫文•戴维斯勋爵是政府平衡法的泰斗，他曾说过，公司董事会会议室里没有女性入座简直让人不能接受。莫文还策划了政府的自律守则（voluntary code)，该守则规定，到2017年女性要占富时100指数公司董事席位的25%，而目前，这一数字仅为20.7%。