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Nearly one in four employed Iowa women say they have been sexually harassed in the workplace during the past three years, a new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows.

Twenty-four percent of Iowa women who have worked outside the home in the past three years reported being sexually harassed during that time. The poll defined sexual harassment as unwelcome sexual attention from a co-worker, including comments and contact.

Among women who have ever worked outside the home, 41 percent say they’ve experienced unwanted sexual attention at some point in their careers. For men, that number is 9 percent, including 2 percent who say it's occurred during the last three years.

Several female poll respondents said they didn’t feel they could tell their stories publicly, fearing repercussions from co-workers or employers. Others told the Des Moines Register about aggressive flirtations, inappropriate comments, unwanted kissing and other forms of assault.

Monica Moore, a 20-year-old college student and poll respondent, recalled the persistent come-ons and comments from a co-worker while she worked as a lifeguard, followed by an alcohol-fueled assault at a party.

Brenda Gullicksom, a 64-year-old woman who lives north of Decorah, told of the time a man entered the small grocery store where she worked and used his body to pin her against the cooler where she was shelving chilled orange juice.

And Jonnie Wright, a 53-year-old Des Moines business owner, remembered with shame the times he had made his female colleagues uncomfortable with suggestive comments or notes left at their desks.

"The media bringing it to the forefront really triggered a lot of memories of my previous behavior," he said. "And it brought all that guilt and shame to the forefront of my head and my heart."

The poll comes as allegations of sexual misconduct continue to pile up against prominent and powerful men all across the country.

Men like Hollywood movie producer Harvey Weinstein and former Today Show host Matt Lauer — once considered icons in their fields — have faced swift consequences in the face of growing public demand for accountability on issues of harassment.

But Iowans are split about whether this moment in history marks the start of a new era in which victims will speak up and perpetrators will be punished.

Forty-six percent say they believe it is, while 45 percent say they think this marks only a brief interlude when official workplace policies may undergo change, but harassment will persist.

Tracy Schepker, a 52-year-old Mills County resident, said she believes recent events have unleashed a phenomenon that can’t be stopped.

What’s different this time, she said, is that those people who are “in the public eye, that are on TV, that have money and power and a voice” are standing up and publicly telling their stories.

Actress Ashley Judd became the first movie star to call attention to Weinstein in a New York Times investigation, and she’s often credited with lending credibility and visibility to a problem that many had whispered about privately but never sought to expose. She was soon joined by other prominent actresses in calling out Weinstein for misconduct, including Rose McGowan. Former Fox & Friends host Gretchen Carlson had earlier leveled accusations that resulted in the ouster of Fox New Channel founder Roger Ailes.

“That opens the whole door to the lower class or middle class. All the people," said Schepker. "For some reason, it just makes a bigger impact."

Changing attitudes

The Register’s poll reveals changing attitudes about sexual harassment in the workplace.

In 1988, the last time the Register polled on workplace harassment, 11 percent of women working outside the home during the previous three years said they had faced unwanted sexual attention from a coworker during that time — less than half of this year's mark.

"There's been kind of a national catharsis on this issue," said James Quick, a researcher at the University of Texas at Arlington who co-authored a journal article about society's changing attitudes to sexual harassment throughout the last 20 years.

"Twenty years ago, a lot of people might not have self-disclosed. You're probably getting more accurate data now," he said of the rise in reported workplace harassment.

Gullicksom, the 64-year-old Decorah-area resident, recalled working for a natural gas company during the mid-1970s alongside about 40 men. She was the first woman ever hired to her position, she said.

“I worked in a warehouse area, and (a co-worker) would corner me in there and push me against the wall and kiss me,” she said. “And I’d push him away. He was married. I was married. And I’d push him away. And then it kind of got to be just like, 'Oh well. That’s how it’s going to happen.'”

Gullicksom said she grew to dread walking past the man’s workspace every day, because she knew he’d get up and follow her.

She said she didn’t feel she had a way to report him, or even a way to describe her experiences at the time.

“Back then, there was no such a word (as sexual harassment), really,” she said.

MORE IOWA POLL:

Wright, who worried about his past actions, said he's hopeful men are listening to women and taking stock of their own roles in perpetuating harassment.

"I think until we start looking at this, this is just going to continue to repeat itself," he said. "... I’m pessimistic by the moment and hopeful by the day (that things will change)."

Quantifying the problem

Although a large majority of Iowans — 87 percent — agree that sexual harassment in the workplace is a problem, men and women remain split on just how big of a problem it is.

The latest poll questioned 802 Iowa adults Dec. 3-6 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points for questions asked of the full sample.

Sixty-one percent of all women call sexual harassment in the workplace a “major” problem, compared with 38 percent of men.

Men are more likely to call the issue a “minor” problem (44 percent), compared with 31 percent of women.

Eight percent of Iowans — including 12 percent of men and 5 percent of women — say there is “no real problem” at all.

And although Iowans overall say they believe workplace harassment is a problem nationally, those who are currently employed are far more likely to say there is “no real problem” within their own workplaces. Seventy-three percent say it's "no real problem" where they work, 20 percent call it a "minor" problem and 5 percent call it a "major" problem.

Reporting harassment

The results also show women are more likely to report harassment in their workplace today than they were in 1988.

According to the 1988 poll, about a fourth of women who were harassed at a job outside the home during the previous three years reported talking to a supervisor or manager. That’s up to 45 percent this year.

But the poll also shows Iowans believe they will report harassment at higher rates than it's actually reported.

Eighty-three percent of Iowans who work say they think they would report workplace sexual harassment to a manager or supervisor if it happened — far higher than the 38 percent who said they actually did report the harassment.

One woman, who declined to provide her name because she still works where the harassment took place, said she ultimately decided not to report her harasser to her human resources department.

"As a woman you kind of have fuzzy feelings about whether it’s worth it,” said the 29-year-old Iowa City resident. "Am I going to seem hysterical? Am I going to seem like a drama queen? What assumptions are going to be made about me? Are they going to think this warrants their time? And that’s not to say I don’t think my employer would take me seriously. I would feel that way regardless of where I work. So it’s not my employer."

About the poll

The Iowa Poll, conducted December 3-6 for The Des Moines Register and Mediacom by Selzer & Co. of Des Moines, is based on telephone interviews with 802 Iowans ages 18 or older. Interviewers with Quantel Research contacted households with randomly selected landline and cellphone numbers supplied by Survey Sampling International. Interviews were administered in English. Responses were adjusted by age and sex to reflect the general population based on recent census data.

Questions based on the sample of 802 Iowa adults have a maximum margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. This means that if this survey were repeated using the same questions and the same methodology, 19 times out of 20, the findings would not vary from the true population value by more than plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. Results based on smaller samples of respondents — such as by gender or age — have a larger margin of error.

For results from Iowans who are currently employed, the margin of error is plus or minus 4.7 percentage point. For results from women who have ever worked outside the home, the margin of error is plus or minus 4.8 percentage points. For results from men who have ever worked outside the home, the margin of error is plus or minus 5.3 percentage points. For results from women who have worked outside the home in the past three years, the margin of error is plus or minus 5.9 percentage points. For results from Iowans of both sexes who have ever worked and have ever been harassed, the margin of error is plus or minus 7.2 percentage points. For results from women who worked outside the home during the previous three years and were harassed, the margin of error is plus or minus 9.4 percentage points.

Republishing the copyright Iowa Poll without credit to The Des Moines Register and Mediacom is prohibited.