By Dominic Giannini in Canberra

There’s a stark difference between male business leaders and female employees in their perceptions about sexual harassment in Australian workplaces.

Bosses consistently had greater confidence reports would be made and appropriately addressed compared to employees of all genders, as did men when compared to female colleagues, a recent survey of 500 leaders and 1000 employees found.

Two in five bosses and 60 per cent of workers weren’t aware of laws requiring companies to take proactive steps to prevent sexual harassment since 2023.

“Surprisingly, a quarter of leaders were still not sure that it was illegal, even though it has been for 40 years,” Our Watch CEO Patty Kinnersly added.

“There’s still a lot of work to do for Australian employers to understand that they have a responsibility to prevent workplace sexual harassment before it occurs.”

Over 70 per cent of male leaders said they had high confidence a colleague felt safe to report sexual harassment, but this dropped to only one-in-two women, the survey commissioned by the violence prevention organisation found.

Almost 80 per cent of male bosses said they had a high degree of confidence appropriate action would be taken by employers if a report was made, again compared to about one-in-two female workers.

Nearly four million women have experienced workplace sexual harassment in the past five years, which is a much higher rate than men and meant women had a more personalised experience with sexual harassment, Ms Kinnersly said.

That accounts for more than 40 per cent of women compared to just over a quarter of men experiencing workplace sexual harassment, according to the Australian Human Rights Commission.

“That’s quite possibly leading to men not understanding the issue well enough. It probably also reflects the community attitudes towards violence against women,” the Our Watch head said.

Workplace leaders thought the insidious problem was improving, but that isn’t what the data reflected, she said.

“We’re clearly not where we need to be.”

Companies that took action to promote gender equality and respect for women, particularly by having more females in senior leadership roles, experienced up to a 20 per cent reduction in sexual harassment, Ms Kinnersly said.

“So the workplaces that are taking action are seeing change, which is really positive,” she said.