In-Person and Online Sexual Harassment in the Workplace Against Women in Europe: A Structural Multilevel Analysis and the Aggravated Risk of the Young Cohort

Workplace sexual harassment is a persistent human rights and public-health problem. This study analyzes in-person, online, and hybrid victimization using microdata from the EU-GBV survey (2021) across 17 countries, applying multilevel logistic models. The official indicator identifies that 31.6% of women have experienced harassment. In-person harassment is prevalent, whereas online victimization disproportionately affects the young cohort (18–34 years). Significant between-country variation is observed, indicating the influence of the national context in shaping risk. Among women under 35, urban environment and country-of-origin dynamics are relevant exposure factors. The findings show high recurrence (57.8%), low formal reporting (1.7%), and insufficient organizational preparedness (23.4% with training available). Digitalization expands the repertoire of violence without displacing its structural foundations. We conclude that there is a need to implement integrated prevention and intervention systems that address hybrid risk through a gender-sensitive perspective and a multivariable multilevel analysis attentive to intersecting axes, with models centered on main effects and the young cohort treated as an analytical stratification.