Does the workplace’s failure to address and stop unwanted behaviour contribute to a normalisation where harassment and discrimination are seen as part of an employee’s expected daily life? Some of the findings from this year’s Harassment Barometer:
- Legislation and employers neither identify nor prevent the problems to a sufficient extent.
- The culture of silence is the best evidence of organisations’ inability to address vulnerability.
- Individual victims are left to bear their vulnerability alone.
Trakasseribarometern/The Harassment Barometer is the only recurring national workplace survey that focuses in depth on sexual harassment in Swedish working life. The 2026 report is based on responses from 6,506 working people aged between 18 and 65.
Fredrik Löfström Bondestam, Director of the Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research at the University of Gothenburg, is a member of the Harassment Barometer collaboration group:
"The data series is now long enough to establish a relative stability regarding both exposure to and attitudes towards sexual harassment in Swedish working life. The overall pattern is one of the status quo, meaning that reported exposure has neither increased nor decreased by more than a marginal amount since 2018. This should be interpreted as meaning that employers, and current policy, are not solving the problem with current measures and perspectives. The fact that reported exposure is highest among young women and minorities is particularly serious, as they form part of the workforce of the future."
The report will be presented at a seminar in Stockholm on 10 June, alongside conversations about how attitudes towards sexual harassment have changed over time and what is still preventing workplaces from breaking the pattern that has existed since the Harassment Barometer’s first survey in 2018.
The collaborative group behind this year’s Harassment Barometer comprises: the Swedish Confederation of Professional Associations (SSR), the Swedish Confederation of Industrial Employers, IF Metall, Handels, Kommunal, LO, Unionen and Verian, as well as the Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research at the University of Gothenburg.
The Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research has three focus areas. The Harassment Barometer is part of our activities within the focus area ‘A Fair and Just Working Life’
The seminar will be in Swedish and you can register here
