One in five Thais have experienced sexual harassment

Under half of sexual harassment incidents go unreported

Latest YouGov Omnibus research finds that one in five (21%) Thais have experienced sexual harassment. Men are almost equally likely as women to experience sexual harassment (18% vs. 23%).

Of those who have faced sexual harassment, over half (57%) reported or told someone about the incident. Men are more likely to report an incident than woman (60% vs. 55%). Amongst those who reported the incident, most told a friend (55%) or family (39%) about being sexually harassed, rather than then police (10%).

The main reason people choose not to report sexual harassment is embarrassment (46%), feeling that no one will do anything about the problem (27%), fear of repercussion (25%) and cultural / societal pressure (25%).

The most experienced form of sexual harassment faced is sexual assault (44%). This is followed by verbal comments of a sexual nature (42%), flashing (35%) and persistent and unwanted invitations of a sexual nature (27%).

To avoid being sexually harassed, two thirds (67%) of Thais take precautions. Two in ten (21%) do not take precautions and the remaining one in eight (18%) prefer not to say.

The most common ways people take precautions are avoiding certain areas (64%), avoiding being alone (57%), and avoiding being out at certain times (56%).

Overall, only one in five (20%) of Thais are aware of the #MeToo movement. Almost two thirds (64%) think the movement makes people more open to talking about sexual harassment. One in ten (10%) think it makes no difference, and the other one in ten (10%) think it makes people less open. The remaining 16% are undecided.

Jake Gammon, Head of Omnibus APAC at YouGov Omnibus commented: “Due to a lack of official statistics surrounding sexual harassment in Thailand, we wanted to find out how prevalent the issue was. What is surprising is the number of sexual harassment cases that go unreported, and the reasons behind it. It’ll be interesting to see if these figures change in an age of #MeToo.”

***Results based on 1,017 Thais surveyed on YouGov Omnibus