Women more than twice as likely to experience sexual harassment, inappropriate behavior

Women are more than twice as likely to experience sexually transgressive behavior than men. This is evident from new figures from the Prevalence Monitor for Domestic Violence and Sexually Transgressive Behavior, a study by Statistics Netherlands (CBS), and the Scientific Research and Data Center (WODC). Over 25,000 people aged 16 or older participated in the survey.

Sixteen percent of the female respondents indicated that they had been a victim of sexually transgressive behavior, compared to 7 percent of the male respondents.

Women who are attracted to more than one gender, in particular, often experience sexual harassment at 34 percent. Of those who identify as non-binary or genderqueer, 31 percent have experienced such behavior.

According to director Barbara Oud of Bi+ Nederland, the national organization for bi+ people in the Netherlands, bi+ people have to deal with the monosexual norm, the norm that you are attracted to only one gender. “That norm is associated with all kinds of unpleasant assumptions and various stereotypes,” she said.

According to Oud, this plays in relationships, but also with expectations that people have about sex. The assumptions that are made with the monosexual norm lead people to think that they do not have to take boundaries into account, Oud said.

In total, over 1.7 million people aged 16 or older (11 percent) faced sexually transgressive behavior in 2024. That is about the same as in 2020 when 12 percent indicated that they had been a victim of this. In 2022, the percentage was slightly higher at 13 percent.

According to the survey, offline sexual harassment is the most common form of sexually transgressive behavior. Eight percent of respondents were sexually harassed in the physical world in the past year. Five percent said they were victims of online sexual harassment and 4 percent experienced physical sexual violence.

Nine percent said that they had been a victim of domestic violence in the 12 months preceding the survey. That amounts to 1.3 million people. That number is comparable to previous years.