Almost all Dutch women and men agree that no means no when it comes to sex

An overwhelming majority of Dutch women (95 percent) and men (94 percent) say that “no” really means “no” when a woman is approached with sexual intentions, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported about the year 2024. The agency looked at people aged 16 and older.

Furthermore, almost 90 percent of people aged 16 and over think it is okay for women to reject unsolicited sexual comments from men. Many also believe that society has turned a blind eye to sexual harassment of women for too long, although the percentages here are lower: 78 percent of women and 68 percent of men.

Of men, 39 percent say that women are too quick to interpret their behavior as sexual harassment. Only 29 percent of women think so. The practice of whistling at women is now also seen by fewer men as a compliment to the target. In 2018, 22 percent of men still considered this a compliment to women. That percentage has now dropped to the same percentage as women: 17 percent.

Despite all these developments, 12 percent of people over the age of 16 reported having experienced sexually transgressive behavior in 2024, with women experiencing it twice as often as men.