Abstract

The TUC undertook this research in collaboration with Queen Mary University of London in order to create a space for Black women to share their experiences and inform the work we do to tackle sexual harassment in the workplace. As the voice of more than 5.5 million working people, we have an obligation to ensure that our movement is responding to the biggest challenges working people face. To date, very little research has been undertaken that focuses on the specific experiences of Black women when considering sexual harassment in the workplace. We are grateful to our academic colleagues and all of the women who shared their stories with us. It was important for us to create spaces where women could talk openly about their experiences and acknowledge the collective harm and injustice that has been experienced. The sessions that have provided the foundation for this work were facilitated as focus groups, with structured questions and prompts to ensure we could collect data that has formed the basis of this report. We wanted to complement this qualitative data with some headline figures which underline the current situation.