The Influence of Race and Gender on Student Self-Reports of Sexual Harassment by College Professors

Abstract

A survey of 525 undergraduates found that 40 percent of the women and 28.7 percent of the men had been sexually harassed by a college professor or instructor. Most incidents were gender harassment. While women reported significantly more gender harassment than did men, there were no gender differences in the frequency of unwanted sexual attention or sexual coercion. At least one incident of sexual harassment by a professor was experienced by 30 percent of the Blacks, 30 percent of the Hispanics, 33 percent of the Asians, 30 percent of the students of other minority groups, and 39 percent of the whites. Again, most of the experiences were gender harassment. Among those respondents who had experienced at least one incident of sexual harassment, almost all answered “never” to the question “Have you ever been sexually harassed by a college professor or instructor?” We conclude with some suggestions, particularly the need to improve measurement of the harassment experiences of men and of nonwhite women.

Female University Students Respond to Gender Violence through Dialogic Feminist Gatherings

“…The Vignette Tests are based on 4 pictures of young men that are accompanied by short texts that describe the men, particularly in terms of their attractiveness and their attitudes towards women. Two of the 4 pictures and descriptions portray young men who behave violently (Vignettes 1 and 3) and whose attitudes are considered in the literature to exemplify violence against women (Banyard et al, 2005;Fisher, Cullen & Turner, 1999;Gross et al, 2006;Kalof et al, 2001). In contrast, the other pictures (Vignettes 2 and 4) portray men who are not violent or sexist and whose attitudes are linked with kindness.…”

“…The survey presented pictures of four men accompanied by a short explanation of their characters. The explanations of man 1 and man 3 included sentences that describe behaviours characterized as gender violence in previous international surveys (Banyard et al, 2005;Fisher, Cullen, & Turner, 1999;Gross et al, 2006;Kalof et al, 2001). The descriptions of man 2 and man 4 only included non-sexist behaviours.…”

“…En la encuesta se presentaban cuatro imágenes de chicos acompañados por una breve explicación sobre sus respectivos caracteres. La explicación del chico 1 y el chico 3 incluía frases con comportamientos caracterizados como violencia de género según estudios internacionales anteriores (Banyard et al, 2005; Fisher, Cullen y Turner, 1999;Gross et al, 2006;Kalof et al, 2001). Las descripciones del chico 2 y el chico 4 sólo incluían comportamientos no sexistas.…”

Sexual Harassment Victimization During Emerging Adulthood

“…Dziech (2003) reported that university faculty members have victimized approximately 30% of undergraduate females and 40% of female graduate students, whereas 90% of undergraduate females reported unwanted behavior from their male peers. However, these estimates may not accurately represent the true rate of victimization because of the general consensus that individuals of differing races and genders perceive, label, and report sexual harassment differently (Birdeau et al, 2005;Fitzgerald & Ormerod, 1991;Ivy & Hamlet, 1996;Kalof, Eby, Matheson, & Kroska, 2001;Kelley & Parsons, 2000;Magley & Shupe, 2005;Shelton & Chavous, 1999). For example, research suggests that sexual harassment is more likely to occur among certain populations including females, graduate students, women in nontraditional fields, minority females, disabled persons, divorced women, young and naïve females, persons who were sexually abused, and homosexuals (Cortina et al, 1998;Dziech, 2003;Kalof et al, 2001;Paludi, 1997;Russell & Oswald, 2001).…”

Social class and workplace harassment during the transition to adulthood

“…Sexual harassment has been well documented within a variety of settings, including the sales industry (Collinson & Collinson, 1996), service sector jobs (Folgero & Fjeldstad, 1995;Giuffre & Williams, 1994), and academia (Benson & Thomson, 1982;Kalof, Eby, Matheson, & Kroska, 2001). Women in traditionally male occupations face more regular and severe forms of workplace harassment than those engaged in female-typed work (Eisenberg, 2001;Fitzgerald, Drasgow, Hulin, Gefland, & Magley, 1997;Mansfield, Koch, Henderson, Vicary, Cohn, & Young, 1991;Pierce, 2004).…”