Sexism and sexual harassment are not a rare practice within political parties, Germany's young female politicians revealed in an anonymous survey, conducted by the Huffington Post.
The newspaper sent questionnaires to 250 female politicians from Germany's five largest youth organizations and carried out 20 personal interviews. As a result, one in three women reported being sexually assaulted as part of their political work; some of them confessed to having been raped.
"I was raped on a political weekend, and it's hard to talk about such things […] because you lose your reputation so quickly, especially when the man has a higher position," a young woman told the newspaper on condition of anonymity.
Not Taken Seriously
READ MORE: French Writer Raped as Teen Supports Deneuve, Slams #MeToo Campaign
According to HuffPost, many young women often have the impression ofnot being taken seriously. More than 70 percent of the women surveyed said sometimes they felt that their male colleagues were being taken more seriously than them.
"Being a young woman, I'm often laughed at. I am referred to as a 'girl', and older men always tell me to listen to them," Kristin Brück, deputy chairman of the Jusosin Saarland, told the newspaper.
The issues of sexism and sexual misconduct have taken on special relevance amid the #MeToo campaign against harassment and sexual abuse.
READ MORE: Scandal Over German Film Director's Sexual Misconduct Galvanizes Netizens
This week, the first big scandal hit Germany in this context surrounding Germany's film director Dieter Wedel. Allegations against him range from harassment to attempted rape, with some of them dating back the 1980s.
The German film director is sometimes compared to Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood film producer who prompted the #MeToo campaign in the first place and who is accused of being involved in numerous cases of sexual harassment and abuse.
The hashtag #MeToo was started on Twitter to encourage women to publicize their experiences of sexual misconduct in an effort to demonstrate its widespread prevalence in today's society.