of workers who experienced violence or harassment told someone about it.
Evidence & Resources
Disclosure, privacy and workplace support
A woman should not have to disclose everything to receive a respectful response.
Disclosure is not a single event. Women may share different information with different people at different times, balancing privacy, safety, credibility and access to support.
Health, healthcare and work are connected.
Global evidence snapshot
Scale, context and equity matter.
of people in employment reported violence or harassment during their working life.
fear for reputation and believing disclosure would be a waste of time were leading barriers to speaking up.
What the evidence says
Start with what is established.
01
The health evidence
Stigma and fear of negative judgement can shape whether health information is disclosed.
02
The wider context
A diagnosis may be absent, incomplete or changing while work impact is already real.
03
What matters
Support quality depends on what happens after disclosure as much as on the decision to disclose.
Working-life lens
The impact can appear in more than absence.
01
Capacity and participation
Women may delay asking for help until impact becomes difficult to hide.
02
Systems and access
Poor responses can damage trust, wellbeing, retention and future reporting.
03
Trust and disclosure
Managers may feel uncertain when systems, authority and referral pathways are unclear.
From evidence to practice
Support begins with a respectful, individual response.
01
Listen first
Ask what work impact and support the person wants to discuss.
02
Design practical support
Collect only necessary information and explain how it will be used.
03
Protect dignity
Agree next steps, document appropriately and follow through.
Women Working Well’s research purpose
What Women Working Well is seeking to understand.
Women Working Well exists to investigate the questions that remain unseen or unanswered: what is missing from the evidence, whose experiences are under-represented, and how women’s health, healthcare, working life and life beyond work connect. These topic-specific priorities help shape the Global Women and Work Study.
01
What is missing
Disclosure research is often condition-specific.
02
Who is under-represented
More evidence is needed on non-disclosure and partial disclosure.
03
What research should connect
Research should evaluate the quality and consequences of workplace response.
Sources and further reading
Global evidence and authoritative guidance.
These sources support the key statements on this page. Statistics are contextual, time-bound and should be read with their source definitions. Evidence from one country, occupation or health condition should not automatically be generalised to all women.
UK Government — Menopause in the workplace literature review →Peer-reviewed Australian employer research — Endo@Work →World Health Organization — Guidelines on mental health at work →ILO — Experiences of violence and harassment at work: global survey →
Important: This page provides general evidence and workplace information. It is not medical, legal or employment advice and does not replace individual clinical care or professional advice.
Keep exploring
See the connected evidence picture.
Return to the Evidence & Resources Hub or explore the Global Women and Work Study.
Evidence & Resources →