经济不景气 男性易受骚扰?

Since the start of the recession, a growing number of sexual harassment complaints have come from men. Some 16.4% of all sexual harassment claims -- or 2,094 claims -- were filed by men in fiscal 2009, up from 15.4%, or 1,869 claims, in fiscal 2006, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

While male victims sometimes experience groping and unwanted sexual advances, employment lawyers say increasingly 'locker room' type behavior like vulgar talk and horseplay with sexual connotations have been the subject of claims.

Ron Chapman, an attorney with employment law firm Ogletree Deakins in Dallas, says in most cases the man suing has been fired or laid off.

The spike in male sexual harassment claims coincides with a recession that has hit men harder than women. From September 2008 to January 2010, 4.4 million men lost their jobs compared with 2.3 million women, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics figures. As the economic downturn took hold in 2008, sexual harassment filings by men and women jumped by 10.8% to 13,920 claims. Employment lawyers say that when jobs are harder to obtain, many forms of litigation, especially discrimination, increase.

In the past, victims of harassment -- especially men -- might have 'voted with their feet,' and found new jobs rather than turning to the legal system, says Greg Grant, an attorney with Shulman Rogers in Washington, D.C. 'When they can't get other jobs,' they have to either live with the harassment or risk the stigma of speaking out, says Mr. Grant. And sexual harassment experts say the numbers are still under-reported because of the stigma associated with men whom are sexually harassed.

The share of claims filed by men rose more in some states with higher than average unemployment rates. Although the numbers by state are sometimes too small to compare, in states that were hit hard by the recession, there's enough data to show the link. In Michigan, where unemployment stood at 14.6% in January 2009, the percentage of claims by men increased to 26.6% in 2009 from 16.6% in 2007. California saw a rise to 23.6% from 18.7%.

In states where unemployment didn't climb as much, claims dropped. Nebraska, which had a 4.7% unemployment rate in 2009, saw claims drop from 23.4% in 2007 to 12.7% in 2009.

Stephen Anderson, president of Anderson-davis Inc., a workplace training company in Denver, says filing a claim is often a no-win situation for a man. 'If a woman is harassing you, people might think 'What is wrong with you? You should be flattered,'' he says. In cases where another man is the harasser, the victim might be afraid that he comes across as unmanly, he says.

The EEOC doesn't track the sex of the alleged harasser, but Ms. Lisser says the EEOC has observed an increasing number of men alleging sexual harassment from other male co-workers.