Fortune cites study on effects of sexual harassment on women’s careers

A study published in May by researchers at the University of Maine, Oklahoma State University and University of Minnesota was cited in the Fortune article, “The hidden victim of sexual harassment: women’s careers.” Amy Blackstone, a sociology professor at UMaine, is a co-author of the study that found women who were sexually harassed were 6.5 times more likely to change jobs than those who were not harassed. The study found that women who experienced unwanted touching or multiple harassing behaviors reported “significantly greater financial stress” in the subsequent two years, establishing a “clear temporal order between sexual harassment, job change, and financial stress.” The study highlights how unwanted, unwelcomed sexual harassment can disrupt the career path of its innocent victims and potentially leave them worse-off financially, Fortune reported. It also underscores the desperate measures that victims are forced to take to escape toxic workplaces, the article states.