manual: women workers' rights and gender equality - International ...

4.14 Sexual Harassment at Work
Objectives
• To understand that there are different forms of sexual harassment
• To understand the effects of sexual harassment
• To identify possible action against sexual harassment
Target group
• Both men or women together or separately
• All ages
• All educational levels
• Formal and informal sector workers
Material
• This manual for the stories
Exercise
Step 1
• Ask the participants to listen carefully to the following story:
Thida is 26 years old and works in a factory, 6 days a week. She likes her work and has nice
colleagues. It is hard work but Thida has a high productivity. She earns enough money to send
her children to school and that makes her happy. A couple of weeks ago the supervisor of her
group was replaced with a man she really does not like. Every time when he comes to check
her work he comes really close and touches her body which she does not like. The first time he
did this, she became angry but then he said that her work was not good and that he would
deduct an amount from her salary. Now Thida keeps quiet. She hopes nobody notices it
because she is afraid to lose her job. She does not like her work anymore but she needs the
money, so what can she do?
• Discuss the following issues:
- What kind of problem does Thida have?
- Do you agree with Thida’s reaction?
- What would you do in this case?
Step 2
• Ask the participants if they can explain what ‘sexual harassment’ means
• Ask the participants to come up with more examples of sexual harassment. A good way of
doing this is to divide them in groups of about 5 persons and ask them to prepare a role play
about a sexual harassment situation
• Let them show their play in plenary
• Thank all players for their contribution and emphasize that these were role plays and that you
know that they would not act like this in real life
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