Resisting the Enforcement of Sexual Harassment Law

Abstract

Most people in the United States believe that sexual harassment should be illegal and that enforcement is necessary. In spite of such widespread support for antiharassment regulations, sexual harassment policy training provokes backlash and has been shown to activate traditional gender stereotypes. Using in‐depth interviews and participant observations of sexual harassment policy training sessions, this study uncovers the micro‐level mechanisms that underlie ambivalence about the enforcement of sexual harassment law. I find that while the different locations of men and women in the status hierarchy lead to different manifestations of resistance, gender stereotypes are used to buttress perceptions that sexual harassment laws threaten norms of interaction and status positions that men and women have an interest in maintaining. The research has implications for understanding the role of law in social change, legal compliance, and the potential/limits of law for reducing inequality.

“Me Getting Plastered and Her Provoking My Eyes”

“…All participants in an interview participate in the production of meaning (Holstein & Gubrium, 1995). For sensitive topics like alcohol consumption and sexual aggression, peer-facilitated interviewing is especially useful for co-producing knowledge because the pre-existing relationship between interviewer and interviewee helps establish the rapport necessary for candid discussion (Tinkler, 2012). This strategy has also been shown to produce comparable data with interviews conducted by trained graduate students with no prior relationship to the interviewee (England, Shafer, & Fogarty, 2008).…”

Sexual harassment training effectiveness: An interdisciplinary review and call for research

“…Although SH training is widespread and has many important consequences, significant questions remain regarding its effectiveness. Some researchers and legal scholars characterize SH training as largely a symbolic effort by employers to insulate themselves from legal liability, arguing that there is little or no evidence of its effectiveness, and often warning of a potential “backlash” among employees (e.g., Bisom‐Rapp, ; Tinkler, ). Others unquestioningly accept that such training is effective, advocating regular SH training for all employees (e.g., Ilies, Hauserman, Schwochau, & Stibal, ; Monroe, Choi, Howell, Lampros‐Monroe, & Trejo, ).…”

“…its effectiveness, and often warning of a potential "backlash" among employees (e.g., Bisom-Rapp, 2001;Tinkler, 2012). Others unquestioningly accept that such training is effective, advocating regular SH training for all employees (e.g., Ilies, Hauserman, Schwochau, & Stibal, 2003;Monroe, Choi, Howell, Lampros-Monroe, & Trejo, 2014).…”

The direct and indirect effects of organizational tolerance for sexual harassment on the effectiveness of sexual harassment investigation training for HR managers

“…Gegenfurtner & Vauras (2017) found a relationship between motivation to learn and age in their meta-analysis of studies pertaining to adult continuing education, in general. Although training on sexual harassment and the handling of such complaints are issues that elicit powerful emotive and social responses not typically observed in general training (Rawski, 2017;Tinkler, 2012), in light of the importance of motivation to learn on our outcomes, we performed post-hoc analyses to see if age had an effect on motivation to learn. 2 In our sample.…”