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#MentorHer
Key Findings
LeanIn.Org and SurveyMonkey partnered to understand what men and women are feeling in the wake of the widespread media reports of sexual harassment. Here’s what we learned.
Almost half of male managers are uncomfortable participating in a common work activity with a woman, such as mentoring, working alone, or socializing together.1
Almost 30% of male managers are uncomfortable working alone with a woman—more than twice as many as before.
The number of male managers who are uncomfortable mentoring women has more than tripled from 5% to 16%. This means that 1 in 6 male managers may now hesitate to mentor a woman.
Senior men are 3.5 times more likely to hesitate to have a work dinner with a junior-level woman than with a junior-level man—and 5 times more likely to hesitate to travel for work with a junior-level woman.2
Women and men feel similarly about the media reports of sexual harassment: 47% are not surprised, and 25% think this is the tip of the iceberg.
About half of women and men say their companies have responded to the #MeToo movement by taking action against harassers, updating their policies, or offering employee guidance or training. (Shockingly, half have not.)
Notes on Methodology
With both studies, data were weighted for age, race, sex, education, and geography using the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey to reflect the demographic composition of the U.S. population age eighteen and over.
- This SurveyMonkey online poll was conducted January 23–25, 2018, among a national sample of 2,950 employed adults. The modeled error estimate is +/-2.5% among employed adults. Unless otherwise noted, all statistics are from the January 23–25 SurveyMonkey poll.
- This SurveyMonkey online poll was conducted February 1–4, 2018, among a national sample of 5,907 employed adults.