Discrimination and Harassment
Harassment and discrimination among faculty and researchers in Canada's postsecondary institutions
Harassment and discrimination can exist across all Canadian workplaces, occurring in any type of occupation and setting, including postsecondary institutions. This study uses data from the 2019 Survey of Postsecondary Faculty and Researchers to examine workplace harassment and discrimination within Canada’s postsecondary institutions experienced by full and part-time university faculty (including teaching staff and researchers), college instructors, postdoctoral fellows and doctoral students. It sheds light on specific types of harassment, the relationship between the harasser and the victim, as well as the grounds for discrimination and types of discrimination. The study also examines whether those who were harassed took action against their harasser, ranging from confronting the perpetrator to filing a formal complaint.
The results of the study are representative of the survey participants, of which approximately half were university faculty (49%), one-third college faculty (29%) and one-fifth doctoral students (18%). The remaining 4% were postdoctoral fellows.
- Women are 1.5 times more likely than men to experience workplace harassment and discrimination in postsecondary institutions, a finding that is present in other workplaces and society in general.
- Sexual minority groups and persons with disabilities are among the most likely to be the targets of workplace harassment and discrimination in postsecondary institutions.
- Persons in positions of authority were the most common perpetrators of workplace harassment against PhD students and postdoctoral fellows.
- In cases of workplace harassment against university and college teachers, colleagues and students were most often identified as the persons responsible.
- Men and women, regardless of role in their institution, were more likely to be harassed by a man than a woman.
- Overall, women are more likely than men to take action against their harasser, except in the cases of sexual harassment/unwanted sexual attention and physical violence.
Harassment and discrimination can exist across all Canadian workplaces, occurring in any type of occupation and setting, including postsecondary institutions. Acts of harassment and discrimination are varied and may have wide-reaching implications on workers’ health and well-being, as well as their job tenure, stability and satisfaction. The consequences of harassment may range from negatively impacting one's attitude toward their job, in terms of their level of satisfaction and their level of commitment, to poorer physical and psychological wellbeing.Note Workplace harassment and violence may also have an impact on the overall economy, such as costs associated with absenteeism, lost productivity and job turnover.Note
To date, there has been very little research on workplace harassment occurring in postsecondary educational institutions in Canada. Some recent research examining harassment and discrimination in Canadian universities has focused on a particular discipline,Note a particular institutionNote or institutions,Note a particular province,Note or type of postsecondary institution.Note For example, one study found that among science and engineering faculty in 12 Canadian universities, women were more likely than their male colleagues to be victims of incivility, harassment and discrimination. The same study also found that while racialized women reported only marginally less harassment than their non-racialized counterparts, racialized men reported significantly more harassment and discrimination than non-racialized faculty.Note Another study at a Canadian university found that women faculty were more likely to be victims of cyberbullying.Note
Harassment and discrimination among students in Canada has been examined more extensively. A recent Statistics Canada studyNote analyzed unwanted sexual behaviour and gender-based discrimination on Canadian campuses. It found a substantial amount of discrimination based on gender, gender identity and sexual orientation, as reported by students in Canada's universities and colleges, with women more likely to experience these behaviours than men. Unwanted sexualized behaviours were also a major concern, with 45% of women and 32% of men reporting that they had personally experienced at least one of these types of behaviour in a postsecondary setting during the previous year.
Although workplace harassment and discrimination occur in all settings, some environments may pose higher risk to workers than others. Postsecondary institutions have some characteristics that may lead to increased risks of workplace harassment or discrimination. For example, there is a great deal of hierarchy in terms of authority (e.g., tenured faculty supervising graduate students), as well as interaction between professors/teaching assistants and students.Note Moreover, younger adults, who are more likely to experience harassment and discrimination,Note represent a large part of the working and student population of postsecondary institutions.
This study uses the 2019 Survey of Postsecondary Faculty and Researchers (SPFR) to help illuminate the state of workplace harassment and discrimination experienced by full and part-time university faculty (including teaching staff and researchers), college instructors, postdoctoral fellows, and doctoral students across Canada’s postsecondary institutions (see Data sources, methods and definitions). In particular, it aims to add to and expand on the body of knowledge on workplace harassment and discrimination in academia.
Women faculty and researchers are about 1.5 times more likely than men to experience workplace harassment
The SPFR asked those who teach and/or conduct research in Canada's postsecondary institutions about their experiences of five types of harassment in the past year, including verbal abuse, humiliating behaviour, threats (e.g., blackmailing, threats to career or reputation, physical threats), physical violence, and unwanted sexual attention or sexual harassment.Note
In 2019, about one-third of women (34%) reported having experienced at least one type of harassment in their postsecondary institution (Chart 1).Note In contrast, about 1 in 5 (22%) men reported the same.Note ,Note This 12-percentage point gender difference aligns with previous research examining harassment across all types of workplaces in Canada. However, these proportions are higher than in other occupational settings. A Statistics Canada study found that in 2016, 19% of Canadian women reported that they had experienced harassment in their workplace in the past year, while 13% of men reported it.Note
Among the five types of harassment included in the survey, humiliating behaviour was the most commonly reported, at 22% for women and 14% for men. This was closely followed by acts of verbal abuse, at 20% for women and 13% for men.
While less frequently experienced, the largest gender gap existed for unwanted sexual attention or sexual harassment.Note In 2019, 7% of women reported unwanted sexual attention or sexual harassment in the past year, about 3.5 times higher than the proportion for men (2%). The frequency of unwanted sexual attention or sexual harassment was also significantly higher for women. In particular, 4% of women experienced two or more instances of unwanted sexual attention or sexual harassment in the past year, compared to 0.8% of men.
Women also experienced verbal abuse and humiliating behaviour at a significantly greater frequency than men. Over a year period, 12% of women reported being subjected to two or more instances of verbal abuse, compared to 7% of men. Similarly, 12% of women said they experienced multiple instances of humiliating behaviour, while the same was true for 8% of men.Note Smaller differences were observed between men and women with respect to threats and physical violence.
Persons with disabilities, Indigenous persons and sexual minority groups among those at higher risk of harassment
In addition to gender, several other characteristics are related to an increased risk of harassment in the 12 months preceding the survey. Persons with disabilitiesNote , Indigenous persons,Note and sexual minority groups (i.e., those who identify as lesbian or gay, or bi or pan sexual) all reported workplace harassment at significantly higher rates. Their heightened vulnerability in a postsecondary environment is consistent with their overall higher prevalence rates of criminal and non-criminal victimization across all sectors of society.Note
It is worth pointing out that the prevalence of reporting harassment is consistently higher for women, whether or not they have a disability, belong to an Indigenous group, or are part of a sexual minority population.
The largest difference in the probability of experiencing harassment in the past year existed between persons with disabilities and those without. For both men and women, postsecondary teaching staff and researchers with disabilities had a probability of experiencing harassment 1.8 times higher than their colleagues without disabilities (46% versus 26%). While this was true for both men and women, women with disabilities experienced harassment more often than men (52% versus 38%).
Indigenous persons also experienced harassment at a higher rate. In 2019, 40% of Indigenous people teaching or conducting research in postsecondary institutions experienced some form of harassment in the previous year – a full 13 percentage points higher than their non-Indigenous counterparts (27%). The risk, however, was much greater for Indigenous women (45%) than Indigenous men (33%).
For the sexual minority population, 42% of bi and pan sexual teaching staff and researchers reported having experienced at least one type of harassment in their postsecondary institution, compared to 27% of their heterosexual colleagues (see Table 1 in appendix). The increased risk for the sexual minority population was seen for both men and women, with the exception of lesbian women, who had a risk that was on par with heterosexual women.
Racialized and non-racialized faculty and researchers experience similar rates of harassment
One personal characteristic generally not related to risk was belonging to a group designated as a visible minority. Specifically, visible minority teaching staff and researchers in Canada's postsecondary institutions did not have a higher probability of being harassed in the past year, compared to their colleagues who were not part of a visible minority population (27% and 28%). This finding is consistent with results on harassment in Canadian workplaces overallNote and with students’ experiences of unwanted sexualized behaviours in postsecondary schools.Note Further research is needed to determine any differences among specific racialized groups.
In addition, those whose mother tongue was neither French nor English did not have an increased risk of harassment, though faculty and researchers whose mother tongue was English were at slightly higher risk of harassment than those whose mother tongue was French (29% versus 25%). However, this difference was only evident among women (36% versus 28%).
Women’s heightened risk of workplace harassment seen across all fields and disciplines
Based on results from SPFR, there is some evidence to suggest that faculty and researchers who work or study in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM)Note fields are significantly less likely (25%) to have experienced being harassed than those who work, teach or study in BHASE (business, humanities, health, arts, social science and education)Note (or non-STEM) fields (29%).
However, women, regardless of field of study, are significantly more likely than men in these fields to self-report that they experienced harassment in their postsecondary institutions in the past year. For instance, 34% of women in STEM fields experienced harassment, while for men in STEM fields, the proportion was significantly less at 21%. A similar gender difference was observed in BHASE fields (33% for women versus 23% for men).
Differences also emerge by role or position within the postsecondary institutions. For instance, university professors reported harassment more often than postdoctoral fellows (28% versus 20%). That being said, women were generally more likely than men to report workplace harassment in postsecondary institutions regardless of their position (e.g., PhD students, teachers), with the notable exceptions of postdoctoral fellows and researchers in colleges. In these cases, there were no significant gender differences in experiences of harassment.
B.C. woman awarded $15K by human rights tribunal in workplace discrimination case
West Coast Leaf lawyer says case highlights difficulties in proving subtle aspects of gender discrimination
The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has awarded $15,000 to a woman who worked at a software company in Penticton, B.C., as a result of her complaint about discrimination based on her gender and marital status.
According to the decision posted this week, former Windward Software employee Carole Loiselle was awarded the sum for injury to her dignity, feelings, and self‐respect caused by various offences over her eight years of employment that included her bosses or colleagues slapping her hands, putting her in a headlock and hitting her buttocks with keys.
Tribunal member Grace Chen said although not all the contact was inherently sexual in nature "Ms. Loiselle experienced five unwanted physical contacts, when the proper amount of physical contact of this nature in the workplace is none."
Kate Feeney, director of litigation at gender-based discrimination defenders West Coast LEAF, says the case highlights how difficult it can be for women to prove the more subtle aspects of ongoing gender disparity.
"Realistically, there are limits to what our legal system can do," Feeney said. "This case also speaks to the cultural shift that all of us need to collectively work toward in our workplaces to make them more inclusive."
'Profound impact' on complainant
Lawyer Ryu Okayama, who represented Loiselle at the tribunal, says his client is pleased that some of her claims were substantiated by the tribunal but disappointed with many of the findings.
Okayama says Loiselle filed the complaint "to prevent other women from experiencing discrimination based on sex and/or marital status like she did."
"Ms. Loiselle's negative experiences at Windward Software Inc. did profoundly impact her life and she still has significant difficulty and emotions related to the same," he wrote in an email.
The lawyer representing Windward Software says the company has applied to have the decision reconsidered.
Company 'failed to dispel a discriminatory workplace'
According to the decision, Loiselle worked for the company as an account manager from 2009 to 2017 and was around 50 and unmarried during that time.
The company has since been sold to a U.S.-based owner, but some leaders and staff highlighted in the complaint remain employed there.
Loiselle's allegations range from the aforementioned physical contact to being given the middle finger by a colleague and her ideas being discredited in meetings.
She claimed the company "failed to dispel a discriminatory workplace by not taking the incidents that happened to her seriously," the decision says.
The company denied the allegations. The decision says, in most cases, the colleagues or bosses involved said the physical contact was meant in jest or as a joke.
'Love languages' questionnaire
Loiselle's complaint also included her supervisor asking her to fill out a questionnaire about her "love languages," based on the bestselling relationship advice book by Gary Chapman.
The decision says the supervisor who had sent it to Loiselle had been advised to do so at an international training seminar aimed at improving professional relationships with employees.
Based on the bestselling book, the "languages" include "words of affirmation, acts of service, receiving gifts, quality time and physical touch." Loiselle's supervisor made it clear in his email to her that the latter would be limited to high-fives and fist bumps.
Although Chen recognized the supervisor's intent had not been romantic, she also made it clear in her decision that the questionnaire was unsuitable in this setting.
"The recipient employee's perception of the questionnaire is important," the tribunal member said. "In my mind, there is no doubt that the questionnaire is inappropriate for work."
However, the tribunal dismissed other allegations in her complaint, including that she was given more work, less lucrative clients and denied a promotion compared to her male peers. Loiselle also claimed she was forced to quit her job because of what she had to endure.
The company said it took all necessary steps to investigate Loiselle's complaints at the time, and the tribunal agreed.
Chen said although the incidents clearly had an emotional impact on Loiselle, it wasn't clear they had been the only factor in her decision to leave her job.
In addition to the $15,000 the company has been ordered to pay, it has also been ordered to refrain from committing the same or similar contraventions.
Innovatank Publishing - Attributions of the content
Statistics Canada. (2021).Harassment and discrimination among faculty and researchers in Canada's postsecondary institutions. [Data visual tool]. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/75-006-x/2021001/article/00006-eng.htm
[Data visual tool]. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/75-006-x/2021001/article/00006-
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