In the three years since the pandemic reshuffled American workplaces, moving some of them from offices to homes, evidence is starting to show that virtual work could in fact be playing a role in reducing instances of sexual harassment.

According to a new 19th News/SurveyMonkey poll, across race and gender, remote workers were less likely than in-person workers to report experiences of sexual harassment or assault at work in the past three years. About 5 percent of women who were working remotely reported instances in that time, compared with 12 percent of in-person women workers. Overall, only 5 percent of remote workers reported instances in the past three years, compared with 9 percent of those who work fully or mostly in person.

Overall, about 20 percent of nonbinary workers reported instances of sexual harassment in the past three years, compared with 30 percent who experienced harassment pre-pandemic. There was not a large enough sample of remote nonbinary workers in the poll to make comparisons.

The poll was conducted online from August 24 to 31 among a national sample of 20,191 adults across age groups, gender identities, races and other characteristics — a larger group than many surveys conducted on sexual harassment in the past couple of years that shows a trend across different industries.

Lower reports of sexual harassment was true for remote workers in every category The 19th polled. For workers under the age of 35, the group most likely to be working in a remote setting, 8 percent of those working from home reported sexual harassment in the past three years. The share for in-person workers in that age group was 14 percent.

Read the full article about remote work by Chabeli Carrazana at The19th.