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Competitive video gaming or esports has captured the attention of hundreds of millions of people across the globe. With that attention has come billions of dollars' worth of investment and promotion. But, it has also exposed an underlying toxic environment that features widespread sexual and gender harassment. This pervasive culture of harassment threatens to derail the esports industry and mars the promise of gender equity in one of the few competitive "sports" where physical strength, agility and body size do not dictate success. In this Article, we examine the rise of competitive gaming, and provide an in-depth analysis of the pervasive issue of harassment that permeates esports. We then propose a series of tangible reforms that would hold harassers and their corporate accomplices accountable for their harassing behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the impact of sexual harassment in the workplace has been well documented, little sexual harassment research has been conducted focusing on the women who work in the sport industry. This study explored the extent to which female sport print media professionals (i.e., sports editors, sportswriters, sports columnists) were subjected to sexually harassing behaviors in the workplace. Of the women who participated in the study (N = 112), over half of the participants indicated that they had encountered some form of sexual harassment over the 12 months before participating in the study. The perpetrators included their immediate supervisors, coworkers, members of the sport media, athletes, and employees of sport organizations. The study also identified the forms of sexual harassment encountered and attitudes toward harassment in the workplace. Suggestions on how to prevent harassment toward women in the sport industry are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following a high-profile case of child sexual abuse in sport in 1996, the Netherlands Olympic Committee and the Netherlands Sports Confederation (NOC*NSF) established a telephone ‘helpline’ service on sexual harassment and abuse (SHA). In order to expand their understanding of this problem, NOC*NSF maintained written records of incidents reported to the helpline. These records revealed 323 separate incidents for the period 2001 to 2010. This paper presents a descriptive analysis of this data and discusses the findings. We conclude that whilst there are major limitations to working with information gathered in this way, a sustainable telephone ‘helpline’ can provide a valuable service for the sports community. Whilst official sources of data are known to under represent the scale of sexual abuse, through collaboration with researchers, such services can also generate important information for policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of sexual harassment of university female athletes in Kenya. The specific aspects of sexual harassment assessed were perpetrators, frequency, location and time, forms or types, reactions of the respondents and physical complaints experienced by sexually harassed female athletes. Data were collected using questionnaires from 339 university female athletes who were participating at a university sport tournament in 2013.Results showed that 64.4% of respondents had experienced sexual harassment incidences and the major perpetuators were spectators with sexual harassment occurring mostly in the playing fields. The most common forms of sexual harassment were sexually offensive looks, comments and unwanted comments on attractiveness in public. The female athlete's reactions to sexual harassment were staying away from the perpetuators, telling them off and talking to somebody they trusted. Their physical complaints after the episodes of sexual harassment were headaches, fatigue and insomnia. Female athletes need to be advised on diverse measures to mitigate the effects of sexual harassment in universities. Universities also need to generate and implement specific sexual harassment policies which are applicable in sport settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigates whether sport is an especially risky environment for sexual harassment to occur. It explores female students’ experiences of sexual harassment in organized sport and compares them with their experiences in formal education, by addressing the following research questions: (1) Are there any differences in female sport students’ experiences of sexual harassment in sport and education? (2) Are there any differences in female sport students’ experiences of sexual harassment from coaches and teachers? (3) Are there any differences in female sport students’ experiences from peer students and peer athletes? A total of 616 female students from three different European countries, Czech Republic, Greece and Norway, answered a questionnaire. The results revealed that the students had experienced more sexual harassment in an educational setting than in a sport setting. Further analysis showed that this was primarily due to sexual harassment from peers in school. In Greece and Norway, there was no difference between occurrences from teachers and coaches, yet in Czech Republic coaches appear to harass more than teachers. The difference between sexual harassment occurring from peers in sport and in education is discussed in relation to whether the sense of belonging/camaraderie that a sport club member may experience might function as a barrier for sexual harassment to occur—because it embarrasses or hurts a teammate. In addition, sport clubs and teams are governed by their respective sport rules and possibly by additional club/team rules, which may also establish extra inside-club/team boundaries for acceptable and nonacceptable/harassing behaviors. This article concludes that greater emphasis ought to be placed on education; not only toward shaping safer teacher/coach behaviors, but also toward the student/athlete behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Coaches can easily dominate athletes and this unbalanced power distribution may be strengthened by authoritarian behavior; i.e. negative feedback, directive communication, coach-led decision making, task-centered role orientation, and goal orientation on performance. An unwanted risk emerges when the power is abused, which can lead to the occurrence of sexual harassment. This article examines whether authoritarian coaching behaviors may have any implications for female athletes' experiences of sexual harassment from male and female coaches. The participants in this survey were 399 female sport & PE students from Czech Republic, Greece and Norway. The study revealed that both the prevalence of authoritarian behaviors and of sexual harassment were significantly higher from male coaches. There was a higher prevalence of sexual harassment experiences from both male and female coaches among those participants who had experienced authoritarian behaviors compared to those who did not. This indicates that authoritarian behaviors are a stronger predictor of experiences of sexual harassment than the gender of the coach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents data from a cross-cultural study titled ‘Gender Relations in Sport — The Experiences of Czech, Greek, and Norwegian Female Sport Students’. The main research question asked is: what are the amounts and the forms of male and female sexual harassment experienced in a sport setting by female sport students in Czech Republic, Greece, and Norway? Women (N = 616) who were studying in sport departments of academic institutions in the three countries participated in the study. The results show that 34 percent of the students had experienced sexually harassing behavior from a man and 12 percent from a woman. Experiences of sexually harassing behaviors from both men and women were reported more often in the Czech Republic and Greece than in Norway.The form of sexual harassment the participants reported experiencing the most was ‘repeated unwanted sexual glances, etc.’ (22%). The difference between female and male harassment is discussed in relation to patriarchal power. The overall differences between countries are discussed in relation to the three countries’ gender orders, gender equality laws as well as the anti-sexual harassment laws inside and outside sport organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the perceptions and the occurrence of sexual harassment among male student athletes with male coaches. Most research in this field of study has been conducted from a male perpetrator-female victim paradigm and has thus been biased towards the study of female student athletes with male coaches. A sample of 98 male student athletes from an inner city university in the Johannesburg area participated in the study. They were asked to indicate their perception of the seriousness and acceptability of specific coach behaviour and how often such behaviour occurred. Through factor analysis four categories of coach behaviour were identified, namely Unwanted sexual behaviour, Physical and verbal behaviour with a sexual undertone, Sexist and discriminatory behaviour, and Acceptable behaviour. The results from the factor analysis indicated that the male student athletes clearly differentiate between coach behaviour that is very serious and unacceptable, or not. One in five of the participants reported that they experienced unwanted sexual behaviour, while two out of five reported the occurrence of unacceptable physical and verbal behaviour with a sexual undertone. The results suggested that the gender bias in sexual abuse research might not be justified anymore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The examination of sexual harassment in sport has become an active research field within the past two decades. It is especially important for sport psychology consultants to understand this issue because they have professional opportunities to influence both individual and organizational responses to it. This article uses interview data from an investigation of sexual harassment in sport to examine the personal responses of 25 elite female athletes to their experiences of sexual harassment. The athletes reacted with disgust, fear, irritation, and anger when the sexually harassing incidents occurred. They also demonstrated individual, internally focused responses to the harassment rather than collective, externally focused ones. This suggests that sport organizations have much work to do on both education and organizational change if sexual harassment is to be challenged and eradicated. The findings also indicate that sport psychology consultants have a role to play in equipping athletes with the necessary skills to avert or confront sexual harassment in sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although it is often assumed that the prevalence of sexual harassment is different in different sports, the assumption has not been empirically tested. This study considers whether the experience of sexual harassment varies by sport. The female elite athletes (N = 553) in the study participated in 56 different sport disciplines. These were grouped as: 1) team or individual sports; 2) extent to which clothing required for competition is revealing; 3) gender structure (male- or female- dominated membership statistics); and 4) gender culture (masculine, gender-neutral or feminine). The data show that sexual harassment occurs in every sport group. Female elite athletes who participated in `masculine' sports appear to experience more harassment than women in the other groups. We conclude that, when it comes to female athletes' experiences of sexual harassment, sport type matters far less than sport participation per se. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexual harassment at institutions of higher learning is not a new phenomenon but discussions of this problem in the sporting arena are still scarce. Many studies have focused on student-teacher relationships, few investigations have researched athlete-coach relationships, and hardly any have conducted comparative analyses. This study compares the perceptions and the experiences of sexual harassment of athletes and students. It is not a surprise that most harassing behaviors are ext ended from men towards women. Thus, this investigation analyses and compares female student/male teacher interactions with female athlete/male coach relations. The findings indicate that sexual harassment is slightly more prevalent in academia than in athletics. However, in order to guarantee a safe learning environment for all participants in both domains, it is necessary to formulate clear guidelines, to set up educational workshops and to implement intervention programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexual harassment research was first undertaken in the workplace and educational settings. Research on sexual harassment in sport is scarce but has grown steadily since the mid-1980s. Even so, very little is known about the causes and/or characteristics and/or consequences of sexual harassment in sport settings. This article reports on the findings from interviews with 25 elite female athletes in Norway who indicated in a prior survey (n = 572) that they had experienced sexual harassment from someone in sport. The consequences of the incidents of sexual harassment that were reported were mostly negative, but some also reported that their experiences of sexual harassment had had no consequences for them. Thinking about the incidents', a 'destroyed relationship with the coach', and 'a more negative view of men in general' were the most often negative consequences mentioned. In addition, a surprising number had chosen to move to a different sport or to drop out of elite sport altogether because of the harassment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Definitions of sexual harassment in sport are more problematic than in other social settings, as sport naturally requires more physical contact, and traditionally legitimizes male domination. This study examines perceptions of what is considered sexual harassment of female athletes by male coaches, treating them as cultural phenomena related to gender and to the society in which it is examined. The purposes of this study were: (1) to examine which coach behaviors are perceived as sexual harassment by student-athletes in Israel; (2) to examine whether these perceptions are similar to, or different from, perceptions of Israeli coaches on the one hand, and American student-athletes on the other hand; (3) to assess the harassment incidence in the lives of Israeli student-athletes. The survey sample included 301 female students and 75 coaches from the College of Physical Education and Sport Sciences and from the Coaching School at the Wingate Institute, Israel. Participants answered a 27-item questionnaire (adapted from Volkwein et al., 1997), describing various coach behaviors, marking to what degree they perceive each behavior as potential harassment. In addition, student-athletes were asked to mark how often they experienced such behaviors, and to report whether or not they were personally harassed. A factor analysis of the 27 items identified four factors: verbal or physical advances, non-instructional/potentially threatening behavior, sexist behavior, and instruction-related behavior. Statistically significant differences were found between coaches and female student-athletes in the degree of severity in which they relate to the behaviors in the first factor. Israeli student-athletes have stricter standards compared to American students in their perceptions of sexual harassment in sport. Harassment experiences related to sport were reported by 14 percent of the respondents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the experiences and perceptions of sexual harassment among women athletes coached by men in the male-dominated world of elite sport. Drawing on interviews with 32 female athletes, we focus on the women's own interpretations of the behaviours they encounter, and locate their experiences of sexual harassment within the broader context of gender harassment and discrimination which shapes much of their experience in sport. We consider the possibility of challenging sexual harassment in sport by changing the terms of women's participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexual harassment at institutions of higher learning is not a new phenomenon, but discussions of this problem in the sporting arena and in related research are still scarce. Most studies have focused on student-instructor relationships, while few analyses have analysed coach-athlete relationships. This study examines American female college athletes' experiences with, and emotional responses to, sexual harassment in sport by coaches. The findings clearly demonstrate that the athletic world does not differ with regard to occunences of sexual harassment compared to other social domains. Thus, in order to guarantee a safe learning environment in athletics for all participants, it is necessary to formulate clear guidelines, set up educational workshops and implement intervention programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study concerning the sexual harassment of trainers, administrators and spectators towards 356 sportswomen through a 20-item questionnaire in Turkey. Findings reveal that 200 of them are sexually harassed after the games or training in the sports center. Relationship of groups, age, educational background is significant, while years of sports experience, marital status, gender is insignificant. The study concludes the exposure of sportswomen to sexual harassment.