Current as of August 2026 · 158 sources

Everything on Aftermetoo is rooted in research and evidence. Below are the studies, data, and reports that have informed our work.

The evidence at a glance

92peer-reviewed journal articles
12government / Statistics Canada reports
26NGO / institutional reports
23books
58Canadian sources
2graduate theses
3other (book chapter, commentary, magazine)
1979–2026years covered

Prevalence & measurement

How common workplace sexual harassment is in Canada and beyond, and how researchers and government agencies measure it.

Reporting: barriers, responses & backlash

Why people who are harassed frequently don’t report, how they weigh confronting a harasser, and the career penalties that can follow those who do speak up.

Mental-health & wellbeing impacts

The documented effects of harassment on mental health and wellbeing — including two meta-analyses that pool results across many studies.

Economic & career impacts

What harassment costs targets financially and professionally — from lost wages to derailed careers.

Race, immigration & intersectionality

How race, immigration status, and overlapping identities shape both the risk of harassment and the barriers to doing anything about it.

2SLGBTQIA+ & gender-diverse workers

The workplace experiences of transgender, non-binary, and other 2SLGBTQIA+ employees — including in Canada’s federal public service.

Indigenous communities

Harassment, violence, and their mental-health toll in Indigenous communities and workplaces, including in resource-extraction settings.

Industry-specific settings

Sectors where harassment is especially prevalent or structurally embedded — restaurants, hospitality and tourism, care work, policing, and the technology industry.

Law & policy (Canada)

How Canadian human-rights law, labour arbitration, and unions have — and haven’t — addressed workplace sexual harassment.

Media, culture, credibility & gaslighting

What drives harassment as a form of power and norm-enforcement, and how culture, media, and tactics like gaslighting and credibility-discounting shape whether survivors are believed.

Institutional betrayal & institutional courage

How an institution’s response to a report shapes the harm — “institutional betrayal” when employers or schools fail those who depend on them, and “institutional courage” when they respond with support and transparency.

Selected books

Longer works the site draws on, grouped by focus.

Workplace sexual harassment

  • Sexual Harassment of Working Women: A Case of Sex Discrimination
    Catharine A. MacKinnon · Yale University Press · 1979
    Book
  • The Shield of Silence: How Power Perpetuates a Culture of Harassment and Bullying in the Workplace
    Lauren Stiller Rikleen · American Bar Association · 2019
    Book
  • Staying in the Game: The Playbook for Beating Workplace Sexual Harassment
    Adrienne Lawrence · TarcherPerigee · 2020
    Book
  • Sexual Harassment, the Abuse of Power and the Crisis of Leadership: Superstar Harassers and How to Stop Them
    James K. Beggan · Edward Elgar Publishing · 2019
    Book

#MeToo, complaint & culture

  • Complaint!
    Sara Ahmed · Duke University Press · 2021
    Book
  • Had It Coming: What’s Fair in the Age of #MeToo?
    Robyn Doolittle · Allen Lane · 2019
    BookCanadian
  • MeToo: The Impact of Rape Culture in the Media
    Meenakshi Gigi Durham · Polity · 2021
    Book

Betrayal, whistleblowing & institutions

  • Blind to Betrayal: Why We Fool Ourselves We Aren’t Being Fooled
    Jennifer J. Freyd & Pamela Birrell · Wiley · 2013
    Book
  • Whistleblowers: Broken Lives and Organizational Power
    C. Fred Alford · Cornell University Press · 2001
    Book

Sexual assault & the law

  • Putting Trials on Trial: Sexual Assault and the Failure of the Legal Profession
    Elaine Craig · McGill-Queen’s University Press · 2018
    BookCanadian
  • Rape: The Misunderstood Crime
    Julie A. Allison & Lawrence S. Wrightsman · Sage · 1993
    Book

Gender-diverse & 2SLGBTQIA+ workers

  • Queer Career: Sexuality and Work in Modern America
    Margot Canaday · Princeton University Press · 2023
    Book
  • Trans Bodies, Trans Selves: A Resource by and for Transgender Communities (2nd ed.)
    Laura Erickson-Schroth (Ed.) · Oxford University Press · 2022
    Book
  • The Lives of Transgender People
    Genny Beemyn & Susan Rankin · Columbia University Press · 2011
    Book
  • Transgender Rights
    Paisley Currah, Richard M. Juang & Shannon Price Minter (Eds.) · University of Minnesota Press · 2006
    Book
  • Transgender Workplace Diversity: Policy Tools, Training Issues and Communication Strategies for HR and Legal Professionals
    Jillian T. Weiss · BookSurge Publishing · 2007
    Book
  • Transgender Employment Experiences: Gendered Perceptions and the Law
    Kyla Bender-Baird · SUNY Press · 2011
    Book
  • Transgender in the Workplace: The Complete Guide to the New Authenticity for Employers and Gender-Diverse Professionals
    Vanessa Sheridan · Praeger · 2018
    Book
  • Transgender Employees in the Workplace: A Guide for Employers
    Jennie Kermode · Jessica Kingsley Publishers · 2017
    Book
  • Gender Ambiguity in the Workplace: Transgender and Gender-Diverse Discrimination
    Alison Ash Fogarty & Lily Zheng · Praeger · 2018
    Book

Canadian context

  • Human Rights in Canada: A History
    Dominique Clément · Wilfrid Laurier University Press · 2016
    BookCanadian

French-language context

  • Souffrance en France : la banalisation de l’injustice sociale
    Christophe Dejours · Seuil · 1998
    Book
  • Le Harcèlement moral : la violence perverse au quotidien
    Marie-France Hirigoyen · Syros · 1998
    Book
Source types: Peer-reviewed Government NGO / Institutional Thesis Commentary Book / Other  · Canadian = source authored, published, or about Canada

About this evidence base

These are the sources that inform Aftermetoo — peer-reviewed studies, Canadian government data, and reports from established research and advocacy organizations, with particular weight on Canadian evidence. They are the reading that underpins the site, gathered in the course of the work rather than compiled as a catalogue of its own.