Workplace Violence’s Outsized Impact on Women

Workplace violence disproportionately targets women. 

The workplace gender gap isn’t just about pay disparity. There’s also a pretty big gap when it comes to being targeted by violence in the workplace too. 

•  According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (“NIOSH”), 73% of those who experience trauma from workplace violence are women.
•  Per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, female employees were almost twice as likely as male employees to suffer from nonfatal injuries due to workplace violence that resulted in days away from work.
•  Female employees account for 65% of the nonfatal injuries due to workplace violence involving hitting, kicking, beating or shoving that resulted in missed work.

It’s no wonder that 86% of female employees place “extreme importance” on their physical safety at work.

In this piece we’ll look at the disparate impact of workplace violence on women, and some strategies employers can implement to help their female employees avoid physical harm from workplace violence.

California’s new workplace violence prevention law requires employers to implement and maintain an effective workplace violence prevention program. My free California employers workplace violence prevention checklist will help you do that.   

Sexual Assault in the Workplace

Women face a significant risk of sexual assault. Estimates are that 1 out of every 6 American women have been the victim of sexual assault. And it’s not just outside of work where rapes and sexual assault occur.

8% of all reported sexual assaults occur in the workplace. And women are the victims in 80% of those workplace sexual assaults.

Workplace related sexual assaults can occur in the physical workplace, in the workplace’s parking lot, or while working at a client’s location. Sexual assaults in the workplace can happen from any of the four source types for workplace violence. Be that from someone in the community unaffiliated with work, from a client, customer, or patient, from a co-worker, and from an ex-partner.

Employers should provide training to employees to help prevent sexual assault based upon the relevant source types of safety threats.

Family Violence in the Workplace 

Female employees are at a greater risk of being victimized by family violence in the workplace than their male counterparts. 

Family violence is prevalent in the workplace. According to the US Department of Labor (“DOL”) 37% of all workplace violence is connected to family violence. 

There are multiple reasons why woman are targeted by family violence in the workplace, but the main reason is because her workplace, vehicle, and schedule are known to the potential assailant, location, which makes conducting an attack easier to do.

Further, women are targets of family violence at a rate that is 3xs greater than the rate that men are targeted. 

As a result, despite efforts to keep an employee’s outside life separate from her work life, family violence often spills over into the workplace.

As a result of the high risk to women for being subjected to family violence while in the workplace, employers should train female employees on recognizing, avoiding, and preventing the safety threats to her that can result from family violence.

Women Work in Greater Numbers in Work that has Higher Levels of Workplace Violence

There are multiple reasons for why women are targeted more by workplace violence. But, one of the principal reasons behind this disproportionality is that women work in higher at higher percentages in fields with higher levels of workplace violence.

•  Women make up almost 80% of the workforce in healthcare and social services. And employees working in healthcare and social services are targeted with violence 5xs more frequently than the average employee.
•  Women represent almost 80% of public education teachers, and over 80% of education assistants. Two thirds of public schools nationwide have experienced a workplace violence incident. Schools experience higher levels of workplace violence than the overall average of for all employers (33-47% depending upon how survey approaches).
•  33% of all real estate sales agents report feeling that their physical safety was threatened while at work. But according to the National Association of Realtors that number jumps to upwards of 40% for female real estate sales agents. And with women representing 68% of all real estate sales agents the workplace violence gender imbalance is quite significant.
•  According to the FBI, restaurants are the 8th most common location for violence to occur. 54% of restaurant employees are women; thus, female employees face a higher rate of workplace violence because of the higher risk of the working environment.
•  Retail workers experience some of the highest rates of workplace violence by industry. And over 56% of those who work in retail are women.

Strategies to Lessen the Risk for Female Employees of Physical Harm from Workplace Violence 

 The safety hazards that female employees face from workplace violence, are directly related to their risks from the different source types of the safety hazards they face. 

Thus, their workplace violence prevention training should focus on strategies to avoid physical harm from the specific source types, i.e. community, client, co-worker, and family member that they are most likely to be victimized by.

•  When the greatest threat involves invitee violence, female employees should be trained in how to position themselves for safety, and to not be physically trapped, when working with those invitees and in how to communicate any safety concerns they have while working directly with that individual.
•  Female employees can reduce their safety risks by being trained in implementing situational awareness throughout their workday. Especially those employees who face safety threats from the community, from family members, and those who work at client locations.
•  De-escalation training will help improve female employee safety, especially when the safety threat comes from co-workers, and from invitees.
•  Buddy system training for your female employees is especially important when their safety hazards come from family members, and from the community.
•  Parking lot safety is important for all female employees since anyone can lay in wait for them at the end of the workday.
•  Communication strategies are especially important for women who work in public areas, and whose biggest safety threats come from invitees and the public.
•  Training female employees in changing the dynamics of an attack, taking away an attacker’s initial advantage, is critical to their safety, and to reducing the overall severity of an attack. Most workplace violence attacks against women are designed to use the element of surprise. Thus, being able to survive that initial onslaught creates the opportunity to extricate herself safely from an attack.
•  Self-defense training is critical for female employees facing safety risks from all four workplace violence source types. This is especially true since most women attacked in the workplace know their attacker, and are physically smaller and less powerful than their attackers.

California’s workplace violence prevention law requires to train employees in strategies to avoid physical harm from workplace violence. Learn more about the types of trainings in strategies that are effective at keeping employees safe from physical harm from workplace violence.