http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2294/is_2003_June/ai_103381809
Contrapower sexual harassment: A survey of students and faculty members Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, June, 2003 by Eros DeSouza, A. Gigi Fansler new Although Congress passed Title IX of the Education Amendments in 1972, which made sexual harassment illegal in educational settings, sexual harassment in universities remains a serious problem, with 20-75% of college women being the target of some form of sexual harassment (McKinney, 1994). A growing research area also shows that young college women are not the only ones being sexually harassed. Some reports include male students harassing female faculty members (Grauerholz, 1989; McKinney, 1990, 1992) and Whites with less organizational power harassing minorities with more organizational power (Buchanan, 2002). Although there are many theories that explain sexual harassment (e.g., biological or natural model of sexual harassment), the focus of this paper is on the gender-role spillover theory (Gutek, 1985; Powell, 1986) as a causal mechanism to explain sexual harassment. That is, traditional expectations of how men and women ought to behave are carried over into the workplace, so that men treat female workers as sex objects. Gutek (1985) found that nontraditional male-dominated workplaces resulted in the highest incidence of sexual harassment due to the disparity between the genders in their access to power. Other researchers have also found that work environments where men predominate are more prone to sexual harassment than work environments where men are not in the majority (Fitzgerald, Drasgow, Hulin, Gelfand, & Magley, 1997). According to Gutek and Done (2001), work environments where men predominate are highly sexualized (e.g., sexual jokes are common), which may put women as well as men at risk for sexual har assment. Benson (1984) defined the sexual harassment of those with more organizational power by those with less power as "contrapower sexual harassment." Women who enter male-dominated domains may represent a threat to some men who may, in turn, be motivated to harass the women (De Coster, Estes, & Mueller, 1999; Grauerholz, 1989). For example, male students may want to assert their male supremacy by being sexually aggressive toward female faculty members. In a recent qualitative study, Rospenda, Richman, and Nawyn (1998) explored contrapower sexual harassment and suggested that workplace and academic sexual harassment should be reconceptualized to include the confluence of gender, race, and class. Frequency of Contrapower Sexual Harassment Previous research has shown that contrapower sexual harassment in academic settings is widespread. In Grauerholz's study (1989) of female faculty members, almost half (47.6%) reported having experienced, at least once, a sexually harassing behavior from students, especially from male students (82% of the reports were exclusively from male students, 17% from both men and women, and just 1% from women only). Similarly, Carroll and Ellis (1989) conducted a survey and found that 30% of the male and 24% of the female faculty were the target of uninvited sexual comments (e.g., jokes or teasing) from students as often as four times during an average month. The authors also found that 27% of the male faculty and 10% of the female faculty received sexually suggestive looks from students, or experienced body language of a sexual nature, each month, and 5% of the male faculty, but none of the female faculty, had received uninvited requests for dates. Finally, 6% of the male faculty, but none of the female faculty, were offered sexual favors in exchange for preferential treatment. In another study, McKinney (1990) sampled eight harassing behaviors from students to male and female faculty members at two public universities. She found that male professors experienced significantly more body language, physical advances, and explicit sexual propositions from students than did female professors. When the term "sexual harassment" was used, 19% of the men and 22% of the women reported having been sexually harassed by students, who were of the other sex in over 85% of the cases. Matchen and DeSouza (2000) have recently investigated sexual harassment by college students toward faculty members using modified versions of the Sexual Experiences Questionnaire (SEQ), which was developed by Fitzgerald et al. (Fitzgerald et al., 1988; Gelfand, Fitzgerald, & Drasgow, 1995). The SEQ is a behaviorally based instrument that measures three major types of sexual harassment: gender harassment (verbal, physical, and symbolic sexist behaviors), unwanted sexual attention (sexual attention that is unwanted and unreciprocated), and sexual coercion (bribery). Male and female college students completed the student version of the SEQ during class time, and 102 male and female faculty members (a response rate of 14%) completed the faculty version by mail. Overall, 63% of the students reported having engaged in and 53% of the professors reported having experienced at least one sexually harassing behavior by a student. Given these findings, it is evident that contrapower sexual harassment should be a concern for institutions of higher education. .... lots more -- see link ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. 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