80% of Males overly cautious in the wake of #Me Too movement: Study

Market research and analysis company Velocity MR announced the results of their pan India study to understand the concerns and viewpoints of urban Indians surrounding the Me-Too campaign. The study featured a sample size of 2,569 covering prominent Indian metros including Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Chennai.

In India, #MeToo has spread virally as a hashtag on social media reflecting the prevalence of sexual assault and harassment directed towards women. In recent times there has been a flurry of cases being reported cutting across varied walks of life, varied age groups and multiple industry segments. The study recorded some interesting insights where respondents felt with 8 out of 10 people saying that formal workplace interactions have been highly impacted as a result of this. Close to 80% of the respondents say fear of losing the career, family reputation, social stigma, and skepticism can be one of the reasons for #MeToo victims not reporting the cases earlier. 71% of the respondents say #MeToo is prevalent at homes as well. Majority of these victims don’t talk or report these incidents.

Jasal Shah, Managing Director & CEO of Velocity MR noted: “India is caught in the crest of its #MeToo wave with new cases of sexual abuse and harassment against women being reported every few days. It has seen a large number of women speaking up against sexual harassment and abuse past and present. It’s very inspiring to see that the movement has given a voice to the many suppressed incidents of abuse, but people should handle it with a lot of responsibility I believe”.

He further adds, “It is today a top priority and imperative for organizations and industries to create strong compliance norms towards sexual harassment and to provide a comfortable and safe working environment for its women employees.”

Highlights of the Study

• In the wake of #MeToo, formal workplace interactions are seen to be highly impacted with 8 in 10 respondents claiming the same.

• Close to 80% of males say that men have become overly cautious in their interactions with women colleagues in the wake of #MeToo movement.

• Close to 80% of the respondents say fear of losing the career, family reputation, Social Stigma, and Skepticism can be one of the reasons for #MeToo victims not reporting the cases earlier.

• 71% of the respondents say #MeToo is prevalent at homes as well. Majority of these victims don’t talk or report these incidents.

• 83% of the respondents believe that there are cases of false allegations in the wake of #MeToo. In spite of respondents feeling that there are false allegations too, they are (4 out of 5) hopeful that this would bring about a good change.

• 7 in every 10 say by encouraging the affected women to be independent can be a possible way to make them break their silence about the abuse.

• 58% of females suggest the support of NGOs to help the #MeToo victims at homes.

• A homogeneous break is maintained between genders (Male & Female) to consider the opinions of both on #MeToo.

• When asked whether or not men are facing their #MeToo, many respondents feel that possibility cannot be denied.

• 1 in every 2 respondent feels that working or not, all women are equally vulnerable to the abuse

• 4 in 10 respondents say working women are prime victims of #MeToo. 6 in 10 believe mental/emotional pressure from seniors is a major reason for the same.