Women tend to interpret many situations that arise at work in a much narrower, sexual sense than their male counterparts.
Women tend to interpret many situations that arise at work in a much narrower, sexual sense than their male counterparts *. For example, 54% of women and 48% of men see erotic overtones in a boss’s proposal to meet with a subordinate after work. Similarly, when a manager calls an employee “baby”, 33% of women consider it sexual harassment, compared to only 22% of men. The figures show that men feel more confident and liberated in a professional environment than women, and therefore are less likely to pay attention to their behavior. Women, on the contrary, overly painfully perceive innocent signs of attention from colleagues, which may indicate a lack of self-confidence and internal discomfort associated with the position in the team.
*According to Levada Center data, March 2006.