This informal CPD article. ‘The role of Unconscious Bias in perpetuating Sexual Harassment at the Workplace’, was provided by Bhumika Jain and Prerana Saraf, Senior Associates, External Members and Trainers at Equilibrio Advisory LLP, whose vision and mission is to provide legal remedies & psychological interventions for building Equitable & Safe Spaces.
The experience of sexual harassment can deeply impact one’s sense of safety and well-being in a workplace context. In an effort to support women employees against sexual harassment and outline the duties of organisations, India has a special legislation called the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act (POSH Act, 2013)1. Unfortunately, almost a decade after the POSH Act was enforced in 2013, cases of sexual harassment continue to jeopardize not only the safety and dignity of women in the workplace but also affect people of all genders.
While the causal factors leading up to sexual harassment in the workplace are complex, one significant yet often overlooked element is 'unconscious bias.' In this article, we explore what unconscious bias is, how it contributes to the perpetuation of sexual harassment, and the role organizations play in addressing it.
Introduction to Unconscious Bias
Unconscious bias is often subtle, unintentional attitudes and ideas that influence how we think, feel and act towards others. It stems from our personal perceptions of what is positive or negative, acceptable or unacceptable. This bias is shaped by various factors, including our family and social backgrounds, cultural influences, life experiences, and media exposure.
There are different kinds of bias that can be directed towards certain characteristics like age, race, skin colour, gender, sexuality, etc.
Unconscious Bias can emerge in different ways at the workplace, including recruitment, performance evaluations, promotions, and even in day-to-day interactions and team dynamics, often influencing decisions and behaviours without the individual realizing it. It has the capacity to shape practice, policy and employee experience within an organisation and impact overall culture.
Role of patriarchal mindset and gender stereotypes on unconscious bias:
When it comes to sexual harassment at work, gender bias becomes important to understand. This refers to the prejudiced beliefs & attitudes, norms & stereotypes that lead to discrimination on the basis of a person’s gender that can be influenced heavily by patriarchal ideologies.
Patriarchy has been a pervasive force not only in India but around the globe that centres the needs of cisgender, heterosexual men, while women and other genders and expressions of identity, are regarded as ‘less’.
Families and societies shaped by a patriarchal mindset tend to establish specific norms that define what is deemed appropriate for each gender. These norms often include prescribed roles, behaviours, and attributes, which are passed down through generations and then normalised and internalized.
One common example is the expectation that women occupy nurturing roles while men take on leadership positions and are primarily responsible for financially supporting the family. Additionally, there is a prevailing belief that women are emotional and hysterical, while men are stoic and hence rational.
This bias usually leads to wage gaps, restricts growth and entry for women and non-binary folx into certain industries, and may also emerge in subtle forms of comments, jokes that objectify women and can lead to sexual harassment and violence. Unconscious bias often contributes to sexual harassment, largely due to deeply ingrained patriarchal mindsets that reinforce gender stereotypes and impact reporting behaviour.
Unconscious bias is often subtle
How unconscious bias perpetuates sexual harassment at workplace:
When leadership and employees in a workplace are influenced by this mindset it can create an unsafe environment for women at work – making boundary violations a norm and posing obstacles in calling out, correcting or addressing these behaviours. Some of the obstacles are as discussed below:
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Normalization of sexist behaviour and misogyny can lead to sexual harassment by creating a challenging environment for women at work.
Often, this is expressed as casual sexism - subtle or normalized comments, actions, or behaviours that reflect and reinforce gender stereotypes or inequality. These may come across as harmless - jokes, stereotypical comments, everyday banter or covert behaviour.
In our experience, when a colleague speaks up about a particular joke as offensive, the typical responses are often dismissive, such as “It’s just a joke,” “Learn to take a joke,” or “Loosen up,” which invalidates the person’s feelings and has a negative impact on them.
A study shows that people with sexist attitudes are 15 times more likely to engage in sexual harassment at workplace2. In fact in our experience, we have witnessed respondents contend that ‘if she did not like it/want it, she should have just said no’, ‘I was only trying to make her understand my feelings for her’, ‘it was meant to be a compliment’, ‘I thought she would find it funny’, ‘I was only looking out for her’, ‘this is how the industry is’, ‘it's just how men are’ etc.
- Unequal power dynamics stemming from patriarchal mindsets also further exacerbates the issue. In fact, significant portion of the cases we receive are in the form of quid pro quo wherein men in authority misuse power to get favours from subordinate/s in exchange for workplace benefits leading to extended periods of sexual harassment. This is again sexual objectification of women which is a product of gender bias.
- Traditional gender roles and stereotypes form expectations of behaviour that are internalized. A study shows that when a man expresses anger, it is considered neutral or even positive but when a woman expresses anger, it is disapproved3. Therefore, when women exhibit these traits, they are called unfeminine and ‘bossy’, ‘problematic’ and ‘hostile’. These are unfavourable perceptions and lead to social isolation and other negative repercussions making it harder to assert boundaries or call out inappropriate behaviour.
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Victim Blaming also further creates obstacles to reporting behaviour.
This mindset holds women to certain societal standards, and when they deviate from these expectations, they are often labelled as deviant or lacking credibility4. This tendency to blame victims is evident not only in cases of sexual harassment but also in instances of rape. For example, we have frequently encountered Internal Committee (IC) members making statements such as, “Why did she attend a party so late at night?”; “She seems too friendly” ; “maybe she invited this?” or “She was wearing a revealing dress.”
Certain rulings have perpetuated the stereotype that the victim is often to blame in rape cases, reigniting the debate about the true meaning of consent. Furthermore, there have been numerous cases in which courts acquitted the accused, shifting the blame onto the victim for actions they did or did not take.
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Lack of trust in existing systems and authorities fuelled by the above also leads to apprehensions and reluctance to report.
The obstacles mentioned above contribute to a toxic work culture, which in turn results in lower reporting rates as individuals fear further victimization. In addition to gaslighting or direct victimization, a toxic environment can foster various other fears, such as:
- Fear of retaliation, not only from the respondent but also from others in the organization, especially if the respondent holds a senior or influential position. A study found that 53% of employees cited a hostile work environment as the main reason for not reporting5;
- Fear that management may side with the respondent due to their influence within the company;
- Fear of negative repercussions and impact to reputation and credibility also leads to hesitation to report inappropriate behaviour. Given an organization's sexist culture, the complainant may fear that reporting an incident will only lead to further gossip, and that their complaint will either be ignored or inadequately addressed, causing additional harm to their self-esteem and sense of safety.
- Stereotypical mindset of family members interestingly also has a role to play in reporting of instances of sexual harassment at work. In our experience, family members of an aggrieved woman also play a role in posing hurdles while reporting grievances. This is due to the bias that women play a important role in maintaining a family’s reputation that may be tarnished if information about the incident is revealed.
In our experience, some of the main reasons why grievances are not reported or complainants opt to withdraw their complaint is the fear of their family finding out causing them shame due to which they may be prohibited from working, fear of destabilizing their new married life, belief that family’s honour outweighs one’s own safety, among others.
Integrity of Internal Committee (IC) inquiries
All these concerns often have a direct impact on the integrity of Internal Committee (IC) inquiries under POSH Act / other redressal mechanisms.
When an organization nurtures a culture in which unconscious biases are allowed to thrive, it compromises the integrity of redressal mechanisms. This can result in IC members / key stakeholders forming biased judgments, organizations downplaying the seriousness of inquiries, or complainants feeling discouraged and withdrawing their complaints. Additionally, respondents may be shielded to such an extent that they evade accountability. Such practices undermine the credibility of the IC, further discouraging individuals from coming forward with reports.6 For example, in a certain case, there were concerns raised by the IC about the complainant’s integrity based on her responses to messages sent late in the night suggesting that she may have led on the respondent.
These obstacles create a vicious cycle where employees repeatedly cross boundaries, including committing sexual harassment. However, this behaviour is often quietly accepted as part of the culture, overlooked, or left unreported, which only serves to reinforce and strengthen the toxic environment. It also leads to high attrition rates as employees feel it would be easier to quit than to stay in an uncomfortable or toxic environment.
Conclusion:
India has enacted laws to address complaints of sexual harassment in the workplace, which include provisions for both prevention and prohibition of such behaviours. Effective prevention and prohibition, however, can only be achieved when both leadership and employees are aware of and able to identify their own unconscious biases.
Some important ways that unconscious bias can be addressed at work are through encouraging spaces of reflection to recognise one’s own bias, conducting sensitivity training across levels, encouraging and promoting diversity in leadership, training and capacity building for stakeholders of redressal processes - IC members under POSH Act - on unconscious bias, and adopting and implementing strong Policies and Effective grievance redressal mechanism.
Lastly, it is important to encourage bystander’s / witnesses to engage and call out inappropriate behaviour, creating spaces for escalating observed inappropriate behaviour at work. These methods will support a culture of allyship.
While biases are often hidden, they significantly contribute to the creation of a hostile work environment and can lead to sexual harassment. If left unaddressed, this can foster a toxic culture where employees feel unsafe and undervalued, ultimately resulting in higher attrition rates. Although not mandatory, if organizations take proactive steps to recognize and mitigate unconscious biases, it can greatly enhance their integrity and productivity. In such an environment, employees will feel secure, valued, and able to focus fully on their work.
We hope this article was helpful. For more information from Equilibrio Advisory, please visit their CPD Member Directory page. Alternatively, you can go to the CPD Industry Hubs for more articles, courses and events relevant to your Continuing Professional Development requirements.
References:
1 https://www.poshequili.com/sexual-harassment-act-rules/
2. Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety. (2024), Perpetration of workplace technology-facilitated sexual harassment [Fact sheet], ANROWS
3. S.Brindha, A Study on Unconscious Bias And Sexual Harassment of Subordinates Create Negative Impact on the Efficiency of the Leadership of Women Leaders, International Journal for Multidisciplinary Research (IJFMR), E-ISSN: 2582-2160
4. Haezreena Begum Binti Abdul Hamid, Exploring Victim Blaming Attitudes in cases of Rape and Sexual Violence: The Relationship with Patriarchy, Malaysian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol. 6 Issue 11, 2021.
5. Lily Zheng, Do Your Employees Feel Safe Reporting Abuse and Discrimination?, Harvard Business Review, 2020.
6. How Implicit Bias Fuels Workplace Harassment and Hinders Investigations, Aristo Legal, Nov. 2024.
