Trend Talks, a partnership between Leadership Seacoast and The Chamber Collaborative, welcomes UNH researchers Kristin E. Smith, Sharyn J. Potter, and Jane Gerard Stapleton as they share the results of their recent research on Sexual Harassment in NH's workplaces. The Trend Talks series is sponsored by Bangor Savings Bank.
Sexual harassment in the workplace is a serious problem affecting workers across the United States and in New Hampshire. Nationwide, approximately four in ten women and more than one in ten men have been victims of workplace sexual harassment in their lifetimes. Research shows that such harassment has lasting economic, health, and family-related consequences for victims and their families: it increases victims’ job exits and financial stress, alters career paths, and has deleterious consequences for mental and physical health, including depression, anger, and self-doubt.
In New Hampshire, more than half of women (52 percent) and nearly one quarter of men (22 percent) have been victims of sexual harassment at work during their lifetimes, and women are more likely than men to have experienced any type of sexual harassment.
Joining the panel is Charla Stevens, an attorney with McLane Middleton. Charla is the Chair of McLane Middleton's Employment Practice Group and has significant experience dealing with sexual harassment in the workplace.