Millennials vs baby boomers: How to deal with sexual harassment

A century ago, women fought for the vote. Fifty years later, they seized power in personal and professional relationships: they won divorce, abortion and contraception rights, as well as the right to equal employment opportunities and pay.

Today, the war is still raging - but the battleground has, once again, shifted. For the millennial generation, the focus is widespread sexual harassment and institutional silence over the abuse of women. Around 52 per cent of women say they have been harassed at work - and young women are determined to fight the trend.  

2017 has proved a turning point. Following the Harvey Weinstein revelations, the #MeToo campaign has brought down a host of sleazy men in politics, Hollywood and the media. 

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To understand the public opinion sea change, we spoke to women from two generations: millennials and baby boomers. We asked seven women to define sexual harassment, tell us how recent stories in the press have made them feel, and what they think can be done to tackle the phenomenon.

Having won a host of basic rights for women, baby boomers appear to be more sceptical about women's ability to rid society of sexual harassment. It has been going on forever and is too ingrained in our culture, they say.

"I know where I used to work and what used to be said, but we were adults and we just said 'alright then' and walked away," said one. "It's been going on so long now I don't think you're ever going to stop it, I can't think of a solution."

Copy of Q&A | Sexual harassment

But the millennials are more scathing even about low level harassment, such as wolf whistling. And they're optimistic that #MeToo will cause change.  

Responding to those who say there's a witch hunt happening, one millennial said: "Witches aren't real, but sexual harassment is real and it's happening every day. We should be trying to call it out because it's harmful." 

The baby boomers do, in the end, admit that millennials have more of a voice than they did. "They know they're able to say something now," said one. "We never used to."