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Considerable attention has been focused on sexual harassment experiences and attitudes of older adolescents and adults. Recently, educational and judicial institutions have recognized that harassment also occurs among junior and senior high school students. The primary aim of this project was to gather information regarding early adolescents' experiences with and acceptance of sexual harassment behaviors. Results indicate a considerable proportion of females (50%) and males (37%) have been victims of sexual harassment perpetrated by their peers, even though their acceptance of these behaviors is quite low. Suggestions for a sexual harassment educational program for early adolescents are presented., Sexual harassment of older adolescents has been an issue of concern and investigation since the mid-1970s for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that it interferes […]

At the 1992 SCA Convention in Chicago, CEDA (Cross Examination Debate Association) President, Brenda Logue, reported to the CEDA Commission on Women and Minorities her astonishment at the results of [...]

When does a joke become sexual harassment? In a partial test of an integrative model of gender-related humor in the workplace, the role of personal and situational variables in perceptions of sexual harassment was examined. Other implications of sexual humor in the office were also studied.

Two hundred and four students (108 college freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors; 96 high school juniors and seniors) participated in this study. The socioeconomic status of the participants (high school = 93% Caucasian, 7% African-American; college = 96% Caucasian, 4% African-American) was primarily in the lower middle-class range. The purposes of this investigation were (1) to test whether or not differences exist between high school and college students' perceptions of one form of male sexually aggressive behavior against women, (2) to determine if differences exist between male and female students' perceptions of such behavior against women, and (3) to explore the sex role socialization theory by providing empirical observation of its basic tenets. Findings suggested that boys may experience slower maturation and development of sensitivity toward sexual aggression than girls, but that this gap may lessen with advancing age for college males.

A review of 1,610 studies on sexual coercion published between 1982 and 1992 show a lack of scientific rigor, gender biases and few insights into the causes of such coercion. The studies tend to focus on college students, and almost never consider biological influences.

The purpose of the current studies was to determine if participants would ignore a woman's dislike of sexual material in a laboratory setting. Two experiments (N = 130) were conducted in which participants were asked to show, under the guise of a distraction task, neutral, erotic, or nonerotic distracting slides to a female confederate who was depicted as strongly disliking erotic material. More men than women showed erotic slides to the female confederate who was described as disliking erotic material. Fewer men and more women showed autopsy slides when the female confederate was depicted as disliking erotic material than when she was depicted as feeling neutral about erotic material. These results provide preliminary support for this laboratory paradigm as an analogue of sexually impositional behavior.

Eighty percent of the respondents, women journalists in Washington, report sexual harassment is a problem for women journalists in general, and 60 percent say it has been problem for them personally.

Sexual harassment is widely prevalent within academic environments. Yet, many implicit harassing behaviors bear resemblance to instructor immediacy behaviors (i.e., behaviors intended to reduce relational distance). Since females are largely the targets of sexual harassment, it was proposed that they would rate immediacy behaviors to be less appropriate and would experience less comfort with these behaviors than their male counterparts. Three-hundred-fifty-four students (approximately 70% of whom were European-American) were asked to rate 19 ambiguous instructor behaviors for appropriateness. Participants were also asked to indicate how personally comfortable they would be with the described behaviors. Results indicated males rated 12 of 19 behaviors to be significantly more appropriate than females and indicated significantly greater comfort with 14 of 19 behaviors.

Predictors and outcomes of male harassment and hostility toward women (woman-unfriendly experiences) were analyzed for professional and blue-collar women (N = 805) in three geographic regions. Two central questions were addressed by using multiple regression: Do the same types of variables predict woman-unfriendly experiences across regions? Are there similar job-related and psychological outcomes of woman-unfriendly experiences across regions? Americans reported more such experiences and they affected more outcomes. Scandinavians had fewer woman-unfriendly experiences than Americans, fewer job-related or psychological problems, more autonomy, and better work environments. Former Soviet professionals reported more unfriendly experiences than workers but less than their peers in the other regions. Differences among the regions were attributed to general social and economic policies that have attempted to eradicate gender inequality (Scandinavia), occupational status levelling and traditional gender stereotypes (former USSR), or cultural values of competitiveness and individualism and heightened sensitivity to the issue of sexual harassment (United States).

Sexual harassment is an illegal form of sexual discrimination prohibited by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Although the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that sexual harassment is illegal conduct for which an employer is liable, this transgression continues to be a major workplace problem. Although some researchers have analyzed the incident level of sexual harassment in general, little work has been conducted on particular industries. The research described in this article is the summary of the results of a study of sexual harassment in the health care industry. A written survey was sent to 950 randomly selected members of the Kentucky Board of Nursing. Thirty-five percent of the 441 respondents to the survey indicated they had been sexually harassed in their capacity as nurses. More than 77 percent of those occurrences involved physicians as the harassers. When harassed, 51 percent of the respondents were aged 25 to 35; 25 percent, 25 or younger; 20 percent, 36 to 45; and 4 percent were 46 to 55. Fifty-three percent said they were harassed by supervisors; 32 percent said they were harassed by patients. The survey showed that 23 percent of those harassed felt threatened in their job status if they did not go along with harassing behavior, and 24 percent reported the incidents. Only 23 percent of the nurses indicated that their employers had policies and procedures in place to address sexual harassment. Further, of the respondents that reported being sexually harassed, only 23 percent of these victims reported the incidents. Sexual harassment complaints in the health care industry must be taken seriously. Health care institutions must adopt appropriate policies and procedures to address sexual harassment. The written policy statement on sexual harassment should show strong support from top management, specify the types of behavior perceived as sexual harassment, and be widely disseminated. Training should be provided to all staff, and effective enforcement mechanisms should be implemented.

The present study replicates the work of Konrad and Gutek (1986) within a college sample and extends their work by examining the impact of gender identity and adversarial sexual beliefs as predictors of attitudes toward sexual harassment. One hundred seven college students indicated specific aspects of their direct experiences with sexual harassment and then completed several attitudinal measures. Endorsement of adversarial sexual beliefs and experience with sexual harassment significantly predicted negative (less tolerant) attitudes toward sexual harassment for male respondents. Strong gender group identity and the endorsement of adversarial sexual beliefs significantly predicted negative (less tolerant) attitudes toward sexual harassment for female students. Implications for the focus of intervention strategies within an academic environment are discussed.

Several researchers (Fitzgerald & Hesson-McInnes, 1989; Padgitt & Padgitt, 1986; Till, 1980) have suggested that the construct of sexual harassment is multidimensional and consists of five categories of behavior: gender harassment, seductive behavior, sexual bribery, sexual coercion, and sexual assault. Unfortunately, these categories have not been considered in studies investigating the nature and correlates of perceptions of sexual harassment. This paper presents a study that examined the impact of three factors - categories of sexually harassing behavior, gender of subjects, and hierarchical level of the initiator relative to the recipient - on subjects' perceptions of sexual harassment. The results indicated that gender and hierarchical level influenced the perceptions of two categories of sexual harassment - gender harassment and seductive behavior - but did not influence perceptions of sexual bribery, sexual coercion, and sexual assault. Implications for future research and organizational policies are discussed.

Undergraduate students viewed four videotaped vignettes that depicted potentially sexually harassing interactions between professors and students. Subjects were asked to evaluate the professor's behavior. The vignettes were composed so that two dimensions were manipulated: the sex of the initiator of the behavior and the type of behavior. Results of the study provided partial support of the following hypotheses: (1) the behaviors of female professors initiating potentially sexually harassing behaviors toward male students would be perceived as more appropriate than would the same behaviors initiated by male professors toward female students in identical situations; (2) female subjects would interpret the behaviors as more harassing than male subjects; and finally (3) subtle forms of harassment would be interpreted as more inappropriate by female students than by male students.

A hypothetical incident of sexual harassment at the workplace was presented to 720 undergraduate students of the University, of Bombay who attributed blame to the female victim of a superordinate male harasser and rated the appropriateness of her response to the harassment. The experiment had a 2 (Subject's Sex) X 3 (Victim's Marital Status: unmarried, married, or divorced) X 2 (Type of Harassment: verbal vs. physical) X 4 (Victim's Response: ignoring, complaining, scolding, or slapping) between-subjects factorial design with 15 subjects per cell. Male subjects blamed the victim of harassment more than female subjects, the unmarried and married victims were blamed more than the divorced victim, and the ignoring victim was blamed more than the complaining, scolding, and slapping victims. Perceived appropriateness of victim's response was higher with the divorced victim as compared to the unmarried and married victims, with physical harassment as compared to verbal harassment, and with the complaining, scolding, and slapping victims as compared to the ignoring victim. A three-way interaction on perceived appropriateness suggested that female subjects, as compared to male subjects, were more in favor of strong self-assertixe action against harassment, but relatively less so in the case of the unmarried victim.

The relationship between female clothing and attributions regarding sexual harassment was determined. The results showed that provoking sexual harassment was more likely when the woman was wearing provocative clothing as opposed to the one wearing nonprovocative clothing. These findings may prove useful in determining the validity of cases where a provocatively-appearing female has reported sexual harassment.

The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in perceptions of two 'severity dichotomies' present in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Guidelines on sexual harassment. Male and female undergraduates (N = 198), from a predominately white midwestern university, were given one of four statements based on these guidelines, varying 'form' (physical/verbal) and 'consequence' (economic injury/hostile environment) of the behavior. Analysis of variance results showed females rated the incident as more definitely sexual harassment and as affecting performance more than did males. Participants reading 'economic injury' statements rated them as having more effect on the victim's job status than did those reading 'hostile environment' statements. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed significant 'consequence' and 'sex' effects on several factors: A significant three-way interaction showed that males rated statements less negatively than did females, especially when the statement described 'physical' behavior with 'hostile environment' consequences. Cluster analysis results are also presented.

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of sex of offender and type of behavior on faculty perceptions of contrapower sexual harassment. Probability samples of predominately white male and female faculty at two universities in the Midwest were asked to read and make judgments about an incident that might constitute sexual harassment of a faculty member by an opposite-sex student. The effects of offender/student sex, type of harassing behavior, and subject sex were assessed. Some of the results included, as hypothesized, that when the student offender was male, subjects were more likely to: (1) view the incident as harassment, (2) believe the faculty member would be upset, and (3) see the student as responsible, compared to when the student offender was female. Overall, obscene phone calls and explicit verbal-physical harassment were viewed more negatively than written sexual comments and implicit verbal-physical harassment. Female faculty subjects also viewed the incidents as more negative or problematic on several measures than did male faculty.

The effects of different forms of privacy invasion and status on the choice of privacy-restoring strategies was investigated. The subjects were 285 prospective jurors who were given questionnaires while waiting to be called forvoir dire. The results showed that privacy invasions provoke mostly avoidance or confrontation strategies among subordinates. The type of invasion determinedthe amount and type of communication response. Privacy invasions of the physical type could be construed as sexual harassment.

This study assessed the influence of two subject variables, gender and gender role, and one contextual variable, power of the harasser, on perceptions of sexual harassment in an academic context. Fifty-one white males and 73 white females evaluated a series of vignettes depicting a range of behavioral interactions. When the harasser was a higher power individual, vignettes were more likely to be viewed as examples of sexual harassment, male characters were perceived more negatively, and female characters were perceived more favorably. Female respondents rated the male characters less favorably than did the male respondents, although there were no gender differences in the number of vignettes interpreted as sexual harassment. Subtle differences in the way males and females interpret harassment behaviors are examined and discussed.

Results indicated that a female complainant was seen as less innocent and an accused male less guilty when they had previously been romantically involved. As a consequence, decision makers felt it was more appropriate to be lenient in responding to the accused. Also, as demonstrated in previous research, male and female decision makers differed in their judgments and responses to a complaint of sexual harassment. These results have implications for organizational policies concerning workplace romance and for training people to deal with complaints of sexual harassment.

This study attempted to test assumptions derived from the sex-role spillover model of sexual harassment developed by Gutek and Morasch (1982). One hundred fourteen male and 120 female undergraduates were asked to read scenarios describing potentially sexually oriented behaviors toward women in three different types of job settings (job types: female dominated, male dominated, and mixed). The independent variables were (a) the status difference between the supervisor and subordinate (small vs. large), (b) job type, (c) sex of subject, and (d) sex type of subject (same-sexed, cross-sexed, androgynous, or undifferentiated). The results indicated that ambiguous behaviors are perceived as being more sexually harassing in male dominated and mixed settings than in female dominated settings. The implications for future theory and research on sexual harassment are discussed.

Most of the research conducted on sexual harassment over the last decade and a half has used categories that are neither mutually exclusive nor exhaustive. This has created problems for researchers: it is difficult to compare results from one study to another, harassment types that have scholarly and legal-policy relevance are omitted, and the ability of researchers to inform legal and policy decisions is diminished as a result of these problems. A comprehensive categorization of harassment types that addresses these methodological problems is presented. Specifically, 11 specific types of harassment - 4 types of Verbal Requests, 3 Verbal Remarks, and 4 Nonverbal Displays - are presented with examples from research and legal literatures. Recommendations for reconceptualizing research definitions of harassment as well as for diversifying the methodological approaches to the topic are made.

Men have a higher tendency than women to tolerate sexual harassment, harbor conventional ideas of rape and admit that they may be tempted to rape under certain circumstances. Such an attitude may show misogyny and, as shown in a study, may be reflective of actual experience. Among women, the attitude toward sexual harassment is not related to their actual experience. In other words, females who have strong anti-sexual harassment beliefs are not necessarily spared from the threat of unpleasant encounters with sex and hostile males.

Individuals often report experiences that conform to objective definitions of sexual harassment, but rarely report the subjective perception that they have been sexually harassed. The present research proposed that individual difference factors may mediate this commonly observed discrepancy. It was hypothesized that erotophobia, sexual inexperience, youth, sex role traditionality, repressing defensive style, and need for social approval have a weak inhibitory effect on reports of objectively defined experiences of sexual harassment, but a strong inhibitory effect on subjective perceptions that one has been sexually harassed. Results showed that individual difference factors including erotophobia, repressing defenses, and need for social approval were associated with fewer reported objective experiences of sexual harassment, while the base rate of subjective perception that one had been sexually harassed was very low, and this subjective perception was generally unassociated with individual difference factors. Discussion focuses on individual difference characteristics and motivation to ignore or to fail to report objective experiences of sexual harassment, and on suggestions for further research into the very high base rate of objectively defined experiences of sexual harassment and the very low base rate of perceived sexual harassment.

Judgments concerning a complaint of sexual harassment focused on the perpetrator as a cause of the complaint. However, judgments of the role of the victim's characteristics as a cause of the complaint and responses to the perpetrator were influenced by the victim's feminist orientation, when there was competition between the victim and the perpetrator for a promotion, and when decision makers were male. The findings have practical implications in that they point out factors that may affect how organizational decision makers judge and respond to complaints of sexual harassment.

Structural equation modeling was used to study the characteristics of college men (N=2,652) who aggressed against women either sexually, nonsexually, or both. According to the model, hostile childhood experiences affect involvement in delinquency, leading to aggression through two paths: (a) hostile attitudes and personality, which result in coerciveness both in sexual and nonsexual interactions, and (b) sexual promiscuity, which, especially in interaction with hostility, produces sexual aggression. In addition, sexual and nonsexual coercion were hypothesized to share a common underlying factor. Although its development was guided by integrating previous theory and research, the initial model was refined in half of the sample and later replicated in the second half. Overall, it fitted the data very well in both halves and in a separate replication with a sample for whom data were available about sexual but not about nonsexual aggression.

This study investigated actual and perceived sexual harassment (SH), as well as the discrepancy between them, of women in the workplace, as related to several factual and perceptual variables which were selected on the basis of theoretical considerations and previous findings (i.e., harasser status, workplace sex ratio, and perceptions of intensity of intergender interaction, normative beliefs about SH, and personal attractiveness). The sample included 138 women, employed in four organizations, who responded to anonymous questionnaires. Results showed that women reported engagement in diverse actual SH episodes, which varied in frequency (2% to 27%) along five levels of SH severity continuum. Only 10.1% of the women perceived these episodes as sexual harassing. It was found that the higher the severity of the SH episode, the stronger was the tendency to perceive it as sexual harassing. While actual SH was found to be significantly correlated with all research variables (R = .49), perceived SH was only related to normative beliefs about SH (r = .38), and the discrepancy mainly to personal attractiveness (r = -.21). Various implications of the findings were discussed in light of social judgment perspective.

Two hundred eight faculty members and 314 graduate students located at a West Coast university were presented with 24 brief situations describing five types of sexual harassment in a university setting: gender harassment, seductive behavior, sexual bribery, sexual coercion, and sexual imposition or assault. The participants were randomly assigned to rate the situations under one of four instructional conditions that described combinations of the level of the student and authority of the faculty portrayed in the brief vignettes. Women were more likely than men to view less explicitly coercive situations as harassing; however, neither the target student's level (i.e., graduate or undergraduate) nor the degree of faculty member's power over her affected the participants' ratings of the situations. The results indicated that, with the exception of the more coercive and intrusive behaviors, considerable uncertainty may still exist about what constitutes sexual harassment within the university setting.

The authors reviewed the sexual harassment and nonverbal communication literature to develop a communication perspective on sexual harassment in asynchronous relationships. In so doing, the authors developed a six-step process. The value of such a perspective is that it allows potential victims (receivers) as well as colleagues and administrators to predict the occurrence of harassing behavior among faculty members in institutions of higher education. Finally, the authors make a number of suggestions for prevention of sexual harassment.

One explanation of sexual harassment is that it is the result of differences in organizational or individual authority between harasser and victim. A competing conceptualization suggests that much of what is termed sexual harassment is the result of a particular definition of the situation by women possessing nontraditional or feminist gender-role ideologies. Using a sample of university faculty, students and staff, this study examines the relationship among organizational position, demographic risk factors, and gender-role ideology on the self-reported incidence of sexual harassment. The findings show little relation exists between the various risk factors and the report of harassment in this sample.

REPORTING SEXUAL HARASSMENT The purposes of this study were (a) to explore the utility of a model for predicting reporting of sexual harassment and b) to collect data on the incidence of sexual harassment using the Sexual Experiences Questionnaire (SEQ; Fitzgerald et al., 1988). The sample included 214 tenure-track faculty women and 276 women graduate students. The full model postulated that age, marital status, feminist ideology, and frequency of behavior would be directly related to perceived offensiveness of the behavior. In turn, perceived offensiveness, normative expectations for reporting, and perceived outcomes of reporting would directly influence reporting. As predicted, perceived offensiveness showed a direct influence on reporting, and feminist ideology and frequency of behavior were significant predictors of perceived offensiveness. incidence data showed that the most frequently experienced situations involved gender harassment and seductive behaviors. Results suggest that educating women about the offensiveness of sexual harassment might increase frequency of reporting. Also, further exploration of the model seems warranted.

This study investigates the incidence and nature of sexual coercion among sorority women. Particular emphasis is placed on sexual coercion that occurs within the context of fraternal life. Overall, almost half of those studied had experienced some form of sexual coercion, 24% experienced attempted rape, and 17% were victims of completed rape. Almost half of the rapes occurred in a fraternity house, and over half occurred either during a fraternity function or was perpetrated by a fraternity member. This study provides evidence that fraternities represent a social context that tolerates, if not actually encourages, sexual coercion of women, including sorority women.

The focus of this research was on faculty members as victims of sexual harassment by colleagues (peer harassment) and students (contrapower harassment). A self-administered, mailed questionnaire was sent to a probability sample of faculty at a large, public Midwestern university and to the whole population of faculty at a small, public institution in the Western Mountain region. Several hypotheses were made based on conflict theory, role theory, and previous research. Results indicated that women faculty generally have more negative attitudes toward and broader definitions of sexual harassment than do male faculty. Moderate levels of sexual harassment of faculty by both colleagues and students were reported; minor and anonymous (course evaluations and obscene phone calls) forms were the most common. Female faculty were more likely to report harassment by colleagues; male faculty were more likely to report some potentially harassing behaviors by students. Incidents of sexual harassment were usually not reported to formal agents of social control.

This review examines research studies since 1980 that investigate instructor-student sexual harassment in university settings. Implications are discussed.

This study explored two competing hypotheses about social-sexual behavior at work, which we defined as any non-work-related behavior having a sexual component, including harassment, flirting, and making sexual jokes. The 'contact hypothesis' suggests that reports of sexual harassment, nonharassing behavior, and the sexualization of a work environment are associated with the amount of contact individuals have with members of the other gender at work. In contrast, the 'gender hypothesis' suggests that men will initiate more and women report more social-sexual behavior, independent of contact. Data from 1,232 men and women provided some support for each perspective. Nonharassing sexual behavior was related to the amount of contact people had with the other gender; men and women were equally likely to report such behavior. Sexual harassment and environmental sexualization, however, were related to both contact and gender. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Differences in reactions to 18 scenarios depicting potentially sexually harassing situations were studied as a function of harassment severity and individual level factors. The scenarios illustrate a continuum of behavior, with some situations depicting overt sexual harassment and others portraying more innocuous behaviors. The individuals' reactions were strongly influenced by the perceived severity of the incidents. Reactions were influenced to a lesser extent by the individual level factors of gender, attitudes toward women, religiosity, and locus of control. Among these factors, gender had the strongest effect on reaction types. Findings indicate that harassment severity and individual level factors may combine to influence reactions to sexual harassment.

College women (N = 125) were surveyed about their experiences with sexual coercion. Forty-two percent of the sample reported one or more coercive incidents involving completed intercourse (26%) or attempted intercourse (16%). Only 6% of these incidents were reported to police or campus authorities. Of the victims, 92% knew their assailants, at least casually. A combination of demographic, sexual history, and personality characteristics predicted 21% of the variance in experience with sexual coercion. The variables most highly associated with reported victimization were frequency of sexual activity and religiosity; women who were more sexually active and who attended religious services less often were more likely to report experiencing sexual coercion than were women who were less sexually active and who attended religious services more often. A combination of situational and attitudinal variables predicted 52% of the variance in victim attributions. The variables most highly correlated with attributions were degree of victim assertiveness and the type of force used by the assailant; less assertive women and women who had been coerced by the use of economic or psychological force made relatively more internal attributions about the coercion incidents they had been involved in than did women who were more assertive and women who had been coerced by means of physical force. Finally, a combination of situational and attitudinal variables predicted 34% of the variance in victim-reported adjustment problems following the coercion incident. The use of economic or psychological force, greater physical injury, and relative acceptance of interpersonal violence were associated with more severe adjustment problems, whereas the use of physical force, less physical injury, and relative rejection of interpersonal violence were associated with less severe adjustment problems. The implications of these results for the reduction of acquaintance assault and for the counseling of victims are discussed.