Ana’s testimony is just one of 345 anonymous testimonies collected by the association Women for Global Health (WGHin its acronym in English), an organization associated with the World Health Organization and in which doctors and academics participate.

It all started with Rubiales’ controversial kiss to Jenni Hermoso after the Women’s Football World Cup final. “I was in London watching how every day the BBC front page devoted attention to that unpleasant episode and how anger grew in England. I talked about this with a group of researchers working in universities and the health sector and we thought this was our opportunity,” Helena Legido-Quigley, professor at Imperial College London, told the ABC.

This professor, together with Montserrat Gea-Sánchez from the University of Lleida, and other colleagues from Pablo de Olavide University Foundation and from Is Global They designed an anonymous form and the response was “overwhelming.” “They kept sending us testimonials and telling us this was the first time they were sharing them. They believe that this is the time and opportunity to start changing,” he explained.

Embarrassed, anxious, traumatized…

Among the hundreds of testimonies collected, 73.6% of those surveyed reported having experienced sexual harassment and 28.7% experienced some type of harassment. Only 6.7% decided to communicate this to their superiors and “witnessed impunity that led to their claims being ignored,” according to the study. The consequences of such abuse go beyond the immediate harm: 34.5% of victims reported lasting psychological impacts, including disgust, fear, anger, shame, anxiety, depression, trauma and various mental health problems, according to the authors. .

The testimony, now published in the medical journal ‘The Lancet’, reflects abuses that occurred in hospitals, health centers, universities and other health institutions. And they show how for years situations like this with working women have been normalized and remained hidden.

As do “men who believe they have the right to say or do anything because they will be laughed at.” Or the nurse on duty who “didn’t let” her colleague out of the room and asked “personal questions an inch from her mouth.” Or doctors who share duties at the health center with nurses watching pornographic films. Or the person who hugged and kissed a nurse’s neck and then admitted he had “the wrong person”… A total of 345 stories showing how verbal abuse and physical abuse have become normalized and almost always impact especially on more vulnerable girls and women in a critical situation.

The most common physical harassment is: inappropriate touching, groping, kissing and hugging, but also inappropriate, offensive and embarrassing comments.

A similar situation occurred in England

Now the next step is to do a more qualitative study and find out why these things are not reported, or when they are reported why they are not punished, Legido-Quigley explained. The snowball that started in August after the World Cup has not stopped growing. Although the researcher emphasizes that this is not an isolated event in Spain and recalls that in England the situation is very similar.

In ‘The Lancet’ study, the researchers also proposed solutions by: awareness campaigns, zero-tolerance strategies in the workplace, developing clear definitions of sexual harassment and abuse of power or implementing comprehensive prevention policies beyond the Equality protocol.