OUR HUMANITARIAN WOMEN’S NETWORK MISSION IS TO ACHIEVE A WORK ENVIRONMENT WHERE WOMEN ARE ABLE TO WORK IN THE HUMANITARIAN INDUSTRY FREE FROM DISCRIMINATION, HARASSMENT AND ABUSE.

Humanitarian Women’s Network

http://humanitarianwomensnetwork.org/

Link to Full 5-PAGE Survey Summary:

http://humanitarianwomensnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/New-Data-Sheets.pdf

One Saturday afternoon in Guinea in December 2015, a group of women working on the Ebola response gathered to discuss their respective experiences as women working in humanitarian aid. The women represented many races, religions and nationalities, and were professionally diverse representing heads of missions, middle managers and entry level personnel, both international and national staff. Within an hour of the meeting, the women realized one thing: they have all experienced some form of discrimination and/or abuse in the humanitarian workspace as a direct result of their gender, and that there was no reliable system in place to address their grievances and not result in backlash to their professional positions. This startling conclusion prompted the women in the room to wonder, are we alone? From January to March 2016, we launched a survey that reached over 1,000 women aid workers in 50 days. We asked you to tell us about your experiences with discrimination, harassment and abuse as a woman working in the field. We probed into whether you feel safe, listened to, and respected as a professional. Suffice it to say, there is still progress to be made.

SURVEY DATA

From January- March 2016, a group of female aid workers carried-out a survey of their peers to better understand the experiences of women working in the humanitarian field. The survey sought to capture information about the demography of respondents in addition to four broad categories pertinent to issues facing female humanitarians, namely: (1) Discrimination and Harassment, (2) Sexual Aggression and Assault, (3) Reporting, and (4) Impact on Professional and Personal Well-Being. The 35-question survey captured both quantitative and qualitative information. Options were offered to respondents to share their experiences and some results were coded into qualitative data. The survey was conducted on SurveyMonkey in French and English, and participants were informed through word of mouth, social media, and professional networks. Survey methodology and analysis was guided by PhDs in qualitative and quantitative research. A total of 1,005 women from more than 70 organizations responded over a period of 50 days. Some of the results confirmed what the group had believed to be true from anecdotal evidence, other results were surprisingly positive, and still others worse than we had anticipated.

This survey is not meant to be an exhaustive evaluation of all gender issues internal to the profession, but rather an indication of how prevalent certain issues may be. Moreover, the survey is heteronormative and focuses exclusively on the experiences of female staff in relation to their male colleagues. We recognize that men can be victims of harassment and assault and women can also be perpetrators, but exploring these dynamics would have been too ambitious for this initial survey. We strongly encourage others to conduct further research to explore any key aspects or dynamics we have not included.

Sub-saharan Africa & Indian Ocean
is the most represented continent in terms of field interventions.