Four in five women working in events have experienced harassment on site at an event, according to the 2026 Big Survey from the Network of Women in Events (NOWIE), with the research also highlighting significant gaps in reporting and safeguarding.
The survey found that 80 per cent of women had experienced harassment on site at an event, despite 86 per cent saying the events industry is a safe or mostly safe working environment for women.
The findings suggest a disconnect between overall perceptions of safety and individual experiences, with harassment ranging from comments about appearance and catcalling to unwanted physical contact and sexual assault.
Some 62 per cent of women surveyed had experienced comments about their appearance, catcalling or whistling on site, while 33 per cent had experienced unwanted physical contact. Six per cent reported experiencing sexual assault on site.
The survey also found that 61 per cent of women did not report the most significant incident they experienced.
NOWIE managing director Cat Kevern said the findings highlighted a contradiction between perceptions of safety and women's experiences.
She said: “This research is about turning lived experiences into action. The events industry is an incredible space to work in, but these findings make it clear that too many women are still navigating unsafe environments, inconsistent reporting structures and a lack of accountability.”
“There is a really important contradiction in this year's findings. Most women tell us they feel safe working in events, yet four in five have experienced harassment on site. We don't want The Big Survey to become an annual exercise where we publish difficult statistics and then come back a year later to see whether anything has changed. The question now is what we do with this evidence.”
Freelancers face a particular gap
The report highlights the challenges created by the events industry's heavily freelance and mobile workforce.
Some 38 per cent of respondents were freelance or running their own business. Among women, freelance and self-employed respondents reported similar levels of on-site risk to employed women - 81 per cent compared with 79 per cent.
However, only 28 per cent of freelance and self-employed women knew of a clear reporting process, compared with 64 per cent of employed women.
UN Women UK's executive director Tabitha Morton said the research highlighted the need to extend safeguarding beyond conventional workplace structures.
“What is missing, consistently, is the infrastructure to act on it. That is the gap this report clearly identifies: reporting routes nobody trusts, safeguarding that stops at the office door, and a workforce, freelance, itinerant, public-facing, that existing systems were never built to reach.”
NOWIE is now developing Safe to Work, an industry-wide programme intended to turn the findings into practical measures.
The initiative will include policy templates, recommendations around designated safeguarding leads, a reporting framework and industry-specific safeguarding training.
The findings will be discussed at NOWIE's The Big Survey 2026 Insights Launch: What Happens Next? at Church House Westminster on 15 October, bringing together representatives from the events, workplace safety, VAWG and government sectors.
The survey was completed by 519 people between 17 June and 28 July 2026, including 476 women and, for the first time, 43 men, non-binary respondents and people who preferred not to say. Participation was anonymous and voluntary, with respondents recruited through NOWIE’s community channels, word of mouth and industry media.
Read the full report here.
