however it is difficult to say whether higher or lower rates of reporting indicate substantive change on the ground greater awareness of what constitutes sexual harassment andor willingness to report which is both an individual and societal construct the survey presents a counterintuitive result there is a positive correlation between the prevalence of physical andor sexual violence and european gender equality index scores countries which score high in gender equality like the nordic countries had higher levels of reported violence against women than countries which are ranked as less egalitarian