A study was conducted on 2000 female flight attendants working for a National European Airline from 1965 to 1995.
The results revealed that they rate their health as poor when they have been sexually harassed. This is of major concern to the other women who are working with the public.Sexual harassment included women given unwanted attention, being proposed, ogled at, subjected to offensive remarks about personal appearance, shown sexually explicit material, threatened, blackmailed, or subjected to attempt sexual acts against their wish.
They were given validated General Health Questionnaire and it showed that they suffered from psychological distress which is a cause for their poor health.
Double the number of fight attendants who are not satisfied with their job give a poor rating to their health and triple the number if they have recently been sexually harassed.
Statistics show that around 22% have been sexually harassed by passengers recently and 4% in the past 1 year. 50% of the women under study said that they have been sexually harassed by their colleague or superior, 12% experienced this in the past 1 year. More than one third of these incidents were very brutal.
Poor health could also be attributed to low job satisfaction and strain between the couple regarding their child.
In conclusion this research is of great importance as it shows the psychological distress affecting the health of all working women who come in contact with the public.
