REPORTED INCIDENCE RATES OF WORK-RELATED SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN THE UNITED STATES: USING META-ANALYSIS TO EXPLAIN REPORTED RATE DISPARITIES

This study presents a meta-analytic review of the incidence of sexual harassment in the U.S. The impact of 3 main moderator variables (type of survey used, sampling technique, and the type of work environment in which the study was conducted) on the reported incidence rate was estimated by cumulating incidence rates reported in the literature. Results show that directly querying the respondents about whether or not they experienced sexual harassment (vs. using questionnaires that listed behaviors believed to constitute sexual harassment), and employing probability-sampling techniques (vs. convenience sampling), led to substantially lower estimates of sexual harassment incidence. In addition, the results suggest that sexual harassment is more prevalent in organizations characterized by relatively large power differentials between organizational levels. Based on more than 86,000 respondents from 55 probability samples, on average, 58% of women report having experienced potentially harassing behaviors and 24% report having experienced sexual harassment at work.     

Antecedents and work-related correlates of reported sexual harassment: An empirical investigation of competing hypotheses

This study investigated antecedents and work-related correlates of reported sexual harassment by 365 primarily Caucasian women in male-typed, female-typed, and gender-integrated occupations. Two competing hypotheses on the antecedents of sexual harassment were tested. No support was found for the contact hypothesis, which holds that harassment is related to contact with the opposite gender. Partial support was found for the sex role spillover model, which holds that harassment is due to the transfer of gender roles to the workplace. No significant differences in reports of sexual harassment were found between women in male-typed, female-typed, and gender-integrated occupations. Within male-typed occupations, blue-collar women reported greater harassment than white-collar women, but were less likely to display assertive reactions to harassment. Investigation of work-related outcomes revealed that sexual harassment was positively related to reports of gender discrimination in promotion and employment practices, and had a negative impact on job satisfaction, particularly among blue-collar women. Theoretical implications of these results are discussed and a revision of the sex role spillover model is presented.The authors would like to thank Barbara Gutek and three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Seventh Annual Conference of the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology, Montreal, Canada, May 1–3, 1992.     

SEXUAL HARASSMENT

This study was designed to examine the impact of sexual harassment on Hong Kong Chinese women in the workplace and in college. Questionnaires assessing sexual harassment incidents experienced by self, perceived prevalence of sexual harassment in the organization, job or study satisfaction, and organizational commitment were completed by 77 female secretaries and 84 female college students in Hong Kong. Consistent with our hypotheses, personal experience of sexual harassment was found to be negatively associated with respondent satisfaction with their jobs or studies. However, these experiences were found to be unrelated to organizational commitment. In addition, most of the coping strategies adopted by the harassment victims tended to be nonassertive in nature. As one of the few systematic sexual harassment studies on Chinese working women and female students, we interpret our findings from an indigenous perspective and discuss both theoretical as well as applied implications for research in this area.     

THE SEXUAL HARASSMENT OF MEN?

Recently the focus of sexual harassment research on the harassment of women by men has been challenged. Treatments of sexual harassment of men, however, have generally ignored power differentials between the genders. Our analysis predicts that behaviors identified as harassing by men stem from negotiations of gender in the workplace that challenge male dominance, whereas behaviors experienced by women as sexually harassing reinforce female subordinance. Consistent with our predictions, results indicated the following: men are considerably less threatened than women are by behaviors that women have found harassing; men find sexual coercion the most threatening form of harassment; men as well as women sexually harass men; and men identify behaviors as harassing that have not been identified for women. Results also showed signs of backlash among men against organizational measures that address sexual harassment and discrimination against women. Implications for psychological and legal definitions of sexual harassment of men are discussed.     

The Psychological Impact of Sexual Harassment on Women in the U.S. Military

The purpose of this research is to study the prevalence, dimensions, and correlates of psychological harm that women experience as the result of sexual harassment in the workplace. I employed data collected from a worldwide survey of sexual harassment in the active-duty U.S. military. The scientifically selected sample included over 10,000 working military women. Four general types of negative psychosocial reactions were identified among victims of sexual harassment: productivity problems, attitudes toward the organization, emotional reactions, and relations with family. Analyses explored the relations of these psychosocial reactions to (a) characteristics of the harassing behavior (what happened and who did it), (b) characteristics of the victim, (c) characteristics of the organizational climate in which the harassment took place, and (d) the victim's coping responses.     

Organizational Costs of Sexual Harassment

Working women were surveyed regarding their probable initial reactions to different forms of sexual harassment. Many indicated they would either quit their jobs or report sexual harassment to external authorities. Discusses organizational costs of sexual harassment, ways of preventing such costs, and implications for employment counselors.     

Organizational Responses for Preventing and Stopping Sexual Harassment: Effective Deterrents or Continued Endurance?

Survey data from a student population of experienced workers was used to examine perceptions of organizational responses to sexual harassment. Results revealed significant differences in the perceived seriousness of gender harassment, unwanted sexual attention, and sexual coercion. Moreover, women viewed all three types of harassment as being significantly more serious than men. Terminating perpetrators’ employment, providing a verbal/written reprimand, and mandating an apology were rated as being the most common organizational responses to sexual harassment. A significant positive relationship existed between perceived organizational response severity and effectiveness in combating harassment. Results partially supported the notion that more severe responses are associated with greater effectiveness in communicating organizational intolerance of harassment. Contrary to hypotheses, ratings of organizational response effectiveness and appropriateness were not dependent upon harassment type. Further, organizational responses that involved transferring or reassigning victims were not viewed as less severe punishment for perpetrators than were most responses that involved the perpetrator directly.     

Does a Truck Driver See What a Nurse Sees? The Effects of Occupation Type on Perceptions of Sexual Harassment

Previous researchers have demonstrated differential prevalence of harassment of men and women in men’s traditional, women’s traditional, and neutral occupation types, but they have not looked at differences in harassment judgments among these occupations. Our hypotheses rely on the assumption that people who have observed frequent sexual harassment of others in their work environments react differently to new cases than do those who have witnessed fewer of these episodes in the past. Participants watched videos of two cases and made judgments about the presence or absence of sexual harassment. We categorized the participants based on their occupations—men’s traditional, women’s traditional, and neutral, and compared responses among groups. A gender by occupation type interaction emerged. Men in men’s traditional occupation types provided the highest ratings of harassment, followed by men in neutral occupations; men in women’s traditional occupation types provided the lowest ratings. Conversely, women in women’s traditional occupations provided the highest ratings of harassment, followed by women in neutral occupations; women in men’s traditional occupations provided the lowest ratings of sexual harassment.     

An Empirical Test of the Role of Power Differential in Originating Sexual Harassment

This study tested the common argument made by several theoretical explanatory models of sexual harassment that the power differential between men and women at work or in educational settings plays a major role in producing this social phenomenon. We compared incident rates of sexual harassment using two samples (n = 60 in each) of working women in Israel. One sample consisted of urban women, who were generally exposed to Western-style society and workplace atmosphere. The second sample was composed of kibbutz women, who have been living and working in a more egalitarian society. The two groups were matched on variables of field of employment, age, education level, and marital status. Results revealed that the anonymous reports of overall incident rates of sexual harassment, as well as its specific types, were almost identical for the two groups. Other findings (e.g., reaction to sexual harassment incident) were similar as well. These findings were analyzed and discussed in light of different sexual harassment, theoretical models outlined, especially with regard to refutation of predictions made by the organizational, feminist, and parts of the sociocultural models.     

When leaders harass: the impact of target perceptions of organizational leadership and climate on harassment reporting and outcomes

Using cases of harassment by leaders, the authors examined the effects of target perceptions of leader responses to sexual harassment and whether leader implementation of harassment policies made a difference beyond the impact of the policies themselves. Results showed that women who perceived that leaders made honest efforts to stop harassment felt significantly freer to report harassment, were more satisfied with the complaint process, and reported greater commitment than did those viewing leaders as more harassment tolerant. Different leadership levels had different effects, with hierarchically proximal leaders generally having the greatest impact. Leadership mediated the relationship between organizational policy and outcomes, supporting the view that a key role for leaders is establishing an ethical organizational climate that reinforces formal harassment policies through actions.     

A Cross-cultural Perspective on Judgments of Woman-to-woman Sexual Harassment: Does Sexual Orientation Matter?

We investigated perceptions between Brazilian and U.S. college students regarding a hypothetical case involving woman-to-woman sexual harassment in which the sexual orientation of both the target and the alleged harasser was experimentally manipulated. Thus, there were four different scenarios, which were randomly given to 952 college students (89% of whom reported to be White). We found that the scenario that depicted heterosexual woman-to-heterosexual woman sexual harassment was rated as the least likely to be sexual harassment, to need an investigation, and to be punishable than the other scenarios. Generally, Brazilians viewed the case as more likely to be sexual harassment and to need an investigation than did U.S. respondents. In the U.S., women perceived the case as more likely to be sexual harassment, to need an investigation, and to be punishable than men did; however, no such gender differences were found in Brazil. Lastly, hostile sexism and perceptions of woman-to-woman sexual harassment predicted respondents rating the case as sexual harassment and in need of an investigation.     

Sexual harassment experiences and equal opportunity perceptions of Navy women

In 1989, the Navy began tracking the sexual harassment rates among its officer and enlisted personnel by administering the Navy Equal Opportunity Sexual Harassment (NEOSH) Survey on a biennial basis. While previous reports on the results of the NEOSH Survey have discussed the occurrence, frequency, and effects of sexual harassment in the Navy [A. L. Culbertson, P. Rosenfeld, and C. E. Newell (1993) Sexual Harassment in the Active-Duty Navy: Findings from the Navy-Wide Survey (TR-94-2), San Diego, CA: Navy Personnel Research and Development Center], this study examines whether victims of sexual harassment differ in their perceptions of equal opportunity (EO) climate from those who have not been harassed. Data from the 1991 NEOSH Survey were reanalyzed. Sixty-seven percent of the women officers were White, 25% African-American, and 18% Hispanic. Of the women enlisted, 52% were White, 31% African-American, and 18% Hispanic. The results indicated that women who were sexually harassed perceived that there was less EO in the Navy than women who had not been harassed. This was true for both officer and enlisted personnel. In addition, specific organizational consequences of sexual harassment were identified.The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors, are not official and do not necessarily represent the views of the Navy Department.     

Sexual Harassment: Prevalence,Outcomes, and Gender Differences Assessed by Three Different Estimation Methods

This study investigates gender differences in prevalence and effects of sexual harassment using three different estimation methods. In a representative sample of 2,349 Norwegian employees, 1.1% self-labeled as targets of sexual harassment, whereas 18.4% reported exposure to sexually harassing behaviors during the last six months. When employing latent class cluster analysis as a method for estimating prevalence of sexual harassment, 2.2% could be classified as targets of frequent harassment and 19.1% could be classified as targets of unwanted sexual attention. Although more women than men self-labeled as targets of sexual harassment, men reported the same number of sexually harassing behaviors as women. Sexual harassment was found to be significantly related to mental health problems and low job satisfaction among men and women.     

Research on Sexual Harassment: Lingering issues and Future Directions

This special issue makes some important theoretical strides and presents some provocative empirical advances. A recurring issue from the beginning of social science research on sexual harassment has been the nature of gender differences in the interpretation of social-sexual behavior at work or in academic settings. For example, in an often-cited survey of Los Angeles working adults, Gutek, Nakamura, Gahart, Handschumacher, and Russell (1980) reported that 65.5% of women thought that nonverbal social-sexual behavior at work (e.g., leering, making gestures, and brushing against constituted sexual harassment, but only 35% of men thought so. However, even in this survey, which was conducted during a time when public awareness of sexual harassment as a social problem was much lower than today, the majority of both men and women (81% and 88%, respectively) agreed that more severe behavior (e.g., sexual activity that is expected as a condition of employment) constitutes sexual harassment. After reviewing the research amassed over the 15 years since this groundbreaking effort, Gutek (this issue) now argues that the subjectivity of sexual harassment has been overemphasized. Across many studies, men and women evidence more agreement than disagreement about what is and what is not sexual harassment. Generally, characteristics of the behavior and situation are more important than rater characteristics in terms of their influence on perceptions or definitions of sexual harassment.     

The Structure and Phenomenon of Sexual Harassment: Impact of Category of Sexually Harassing Behavior, Gender, and Hierarchical Level

Several researchers (Fitzgerald & Hesson-Mclnnes, 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.     

A Model of Racialized Sexual Harassment of Women in the UK Workplace

This paper examines Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) women’s experiences of sexual harassment in the UK workplace from the perspective of frequency and types of sexual harassment and characteristics of the harasser; ethnic and cultural influences; power, fear of reprisals, and reporting behavior. Using a snowballing technique, in depth interviews with 17 BAME women who had experienced or witnessed BAME sexual harassment reported that they were frequently sexually harassed by men from the same ethnic background. The fear of job loss, reprisals from male family members and negative organizational consequences resulted in over three quarters of the women not reporting incidents. Key questions regarding the factors and influences that are inherent in racialized sexual harassment are integrated into a model.     

Union Resources and Union Tolerance as Moderators of Relationships with Sexual Harassment

Union membership is often overlooked in organizational research, but is especially neglected in research on sexual harassment. This study investigated the impact of union resources for dealing with harassment and union tolerance for harassment on antecedents and consequences of harassment. Women union members (N = 242) of varying ethnicities (European American, 56.6%; mixed ethnicity, 15.7%; Native American, 9.9%; African American, 5.0%; Hispanic American, 1.2%; Asian American, 0.4%; non-American, 2.9%) responded to a survey. As predicted, Union Resources moderated the relationship between organizational tolerance for harassment and reported harassment, such that women in unions with more resources reported less harassment. Union Tolerance moderated the relationship between harassment and negative psychological outcomes, although not as predicted. Implications for unions, employers, and researchers are discussed.     

Beyond targets: consequences of vicarious exposure to misogyny at work

The present study tested a model examining 2 indicators of a hostile interpersonal workplace climate for women-observed hostility (i.e., incivility and sexual harassment) toward women and perceived organizational unresponsiveness to sexual harassment--and how they relate to well-being and withdrawal for employees. Participants included 871 female and 831 male employees from a public university. According to structural equation analyses, observing hostility toward women and perceiving the organization as lax about harassment predict lower well-being, which translates into higher organizational withdrawal for both female and male employees. Results hold even after controlling for personal mistreatment, negative affectivity, and observed hostility toward men. These findings suggest that working in a misogynistic environment can have negative effects for all employees.     

Contrapower Harassment in Academia: A Survey of Faculty Experience with Student Incivility, Bullying, and Sexual Attention

This study defines contrapower harassment in academia as student incivility, bullying, and sexual attention aimed at faculty. A U.S., Alaskan sample of 399 professors (50% women, 88% white) at the state’s largest public university was surveyed about their experience with contrapower harassment. Although men reported more sexual attention from students and comparable levels of student incivility–bullying, women reported that such behaviors were more upsetting and had a greater negative impact on their health and work-lives; they were also more likely to take action following such experiences than men. Tenure-track faculty appear to be at increased risk of student hostility. Discussion focuses on how gender and other markers of socio-cultural or institutional power relate to the experience of contrapower harassment.     

Drawing the line: How the workplace shapes the naming of sexual harassment

Although sexual harassment naming – the process by which individuals identify and label experiences as sexual harassment – is key to tackling the problem of workplace sexual harassment, extant research focused on individual differences has explained a limited amount of variance in individuals’ propensity to name. We push this research in a new direction, drawing on institutional theory and strategic human resource management to identify workplace contextual factors that influence individuals’ propensity to name sexual harassment. Surveying 408 employed adults, we find that current employment in an industry with a high prevalence of sexual harassment reduces individuals’ likelihood of identifying scenarios as sexual harassment. Further, prior work experience in highly sexually harassing industries has a lasting negative effect on individuals’ propensity to name. In contrast, we show that individuals’ propensity to identify sexual harassment is greater when they perceive that their organization has implemented more HR practices supporting a climate for naming and that these HR practices can actually reduce the negative effect of current employment in a highly sexually harassing industry. Critically, by demonstrating that changing industry norms or adopting specific HR practices can shift individual naming of sexual harassment, we offer new avenues for sexual harassment prevention.