The Society in light of the Surgeons recent headlines of sexual misconduct (Begeny et al. 2023) in the workplace are undertaking their own work, recognising that this needs wider consider, recognising that the experiences of all genders may experience sexual misconduct. ‘Global miscondut can happen to anyone and be carried out by anyone’ (Gov, 2022). Over the years a number of cases within dentistry have been referenced within the dental arena, and of more interest is the experience of dental nurses.
Dentistry like healthcare is commonly a hierachical struture and many do not feel able to speak up for fear of retaliation or not being taken seriously. Sexual misconduct examples are:
- Sexually suggestive comments, for example remarking on your body or appearance, or name calling
- Sexual jokes that make you feel uncomfortable, offended or intimidated
- Leering’ or unwanted and inappropriate sexual porpositions, whether in person, or online
- If someone intentially grabs or touches you in a sexual way that you don’t like, or you’re forced to kiss someone or do something else sexual against your will;
- this includes sexual touching of any part of someone’s body, and it makes no difference whether you’re wearing clothes or not.
- If someone forces you to have penetrative sex, or has sex with you without your consent or agreement, that’s rape.
- If someone sexually assults you by penetration you with another part of their body or another object, this is classed as ‘assult by penetration.’
Online sexual misconduct (Warwick, 2023) is equally as serious as face-to-face or physical sexual misconduct. This can paramount to: Revenge porn, exploitation, coercion and threats being coherced to participate in sexual behaviour online or blackmailed; sexualised bullying, unwanted sexualisation.
The Society are calling on other professional dental groups to commit to looking deeper into this issuse and to come together to provide answers and actions. The survey is live…. https://us1.list-manage.com/survey?u=4a632233686f9a5aee2e3330e&id=1495ab6035&attribution=false
References
Parliament UK (2022) Sexual Miscondut Policy for UK Parliament. Available at: https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/conduct-in-parliament/sexual-misconduct-policy2.pdf Accessed September, 2023
Begeny, S., Arshad, H., Cumin, T., Dhariwal, D.K., Fisher, R.A., Frankin, M.D., Jackson, P.M., McLaughlin, G.M., Searle, R.H., and Newlands, C. (2023) sexual harrassment, sexual assult and rape by colleagues in the surgical workforce, and how women and men are living different realities: observational study using NHS popoulation – derived weights. Available at: https://academic.oup.com/bjs/advance-article/doi/10.1093/bjs/znad242/7264733?searchresult=1&login=false Accessed September, 2023
Warwick University (2022) What is sexual misconduct. Available at: https://reportandsupport.warwick.ac.uk/support/what-is-sexual-misconduct-2 Accessed 17th September, 2023