The issue of the sexual harassment of women has become more and more prevalent lately thanks to the #MeToo and Time's Up movements, but there is still a long way to go. Part of the issue is that many people still don't believe that sexual harassment is as common as it is and underestimate how many women are affected by it during their lives. Sexual harassment happens to women anywhere and everywhere, from the workplace to restaurants to social activities to simply walking down the street. A new study recently released shows that men actually have no clue just how often women are being sexually harassed and are "substantially underestimating" just how often it's happening.

Ipsos Mori recently released their "Perils of Perception" survey which covers everything from climate change to crime to health and economy and sexual harassment. The question asked by the survey was, "out of every 100 women in [COUNTRY] how many do you think say they have experienced any form of sexual harassment *since the age of 15?" Respondents in each of the 13 countries where people were surveyed all underestimated the level of sexual harassment that is occurring. Denmark, the Netherlands, France, and the US saw the greatest levels of discrepancies, with respondents drastically underestimated the rate of sexual harassment.

On average, according to the survey results, people answered that 39% of women had experienced harassment when in actuality an average of 60% of women have. In the US, men surveyed felt that approximately 44% of women have experienced sexual harassment, whereas, in reality, approximately 81% of women have in fact experienced sexual harassment.

Laura Bates, the woman behind the Everyday Sexism website, told The Guardian these results are alarming. “That this survey comes a year after #MeToo, suggests that we have a real problem believing women and taking them seriously," she said. “That so many women have been brave enough to tell stories with devastating personal consequences to hear that they are still not being believed is very difficult to cope with. We need a critical mass of men to stand up and get involved to tackle this problem and become part of the solution.”

While US men had a large discrepancy between how many women they guessed had experienced sexual harassment and how many actually had, even American women underestimated the numbers. The study shows that women estimated that only 59% of women had experienced sexual harassment on some level. The study shows that sexual harassment of women is real and is happening and needs to be addressed and believed.

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