Women around the world go to work to contribute to their livelihood, community, support their families and grow their careers. They do not go to workplace to suffer harassment or violence from others.
Five garment factory workers, aged 24-30, from King Fashion factory in Phnom Penh, shared their experiences and challenges with men in their workplace. “Most men leer, flirt, curse or use rude or bad words to women. It happens often. Luckily, now they stop because we have a better understanding of sexual harassment”, they said.
“CARE’s STOP project on sexual harassment gave us courage to take a stand against harassing behaviors. Through training, we know what sexual harassment is, how to listen to workers’ concerns and resolve cases. We know who our sexual harassment prevention committee is”, they added.
“We are so happy and have confidence. We do not fear sexual harassment because we have a sexual harassment committee to support us. We can voice our concerns, speak up and report cases. We know we have rights to report and be protected even if we are outside the factory.” We definitely report sexual harassment if it happens. “
“CARE’s training and activities organised by our committee members has increased our knowledge of sexual harassment and created a safe and secure
working environments for all workers. They know that they can report cases to the committee, talk with their supervisor or friends, or write a letter and put it in a secret box”.
CARE continues to work in factories like King Fashion’s, as well as engage with governments to strengthen the regulation of factories and enshrine in law the policies and mechanisms which will help address sexual harassment in the workplace.
CARE’s work on the Gender Based Violence and Dignified Works is supported by the Australian Government and many other private donors.
Learn more at Enhancing Women's Voice to Stop Sexual Harassment>