Browsing by Subject "Sexual harassment"

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Beyond Tahrir : women in Egypt battle sexual harassment and assault
(2013-12) Jukam, Kelsey Rebecca; Lawrence, Regina G., 1961-
Since the 2011 revolution, the media has given much attention to the problem of sexual harassment and assault in Egypt. Attacks against female journalists and protestors have thrust the issue into the international spotlight, but it is a problem that has plagued Egypt for years. The majority of women in Egypt face some kind of sexual harassment everyday. This report is about the men and women who are working to stop sexual harassment and assault in Egypt.
Challenges to women finding their voice : a case study of speaking up against sexual assault when the perpetrator is a federal judge
(2011-12) Poffinbarger, Sandra Rae; Sherry, Alissa; Hardwick, Julie
Examining historical ideology of women’s position within society and how that socialization has influenced historical legal cases of gender inequality is the backdrop for a modern case study of sexual harassment and sexual assault. This thesis explores how women’s voices have been, and continue to be, silenced socially and legally through ages old ideology of women’s subordination to men. By examining a 2007 legal case of ongoing sexual harassment and sexual assault perpetrated by Federal Judge Samuel Kent against women in subordinate positions working within his courthouse it is demonstrated that socialization of gender inequality is stronger and slower to change than the laws prohibiting it.
Investigating the validity of gender and sexual harassment measures among Asian, Black, Latina, and White women
(2023-08-31) Bennett, Ashley M.; Awad, Germine H.; Muenks, Katherine; Whittaker, Tiffany; Cortina, Lilia
Measures of sexual harassment are commonly used on racially diverse samples of women, therefore, an investigation into the validity of these measures is warranted. The sexual harassment measures under investigation included the Sexual Experiences Questionnaire (SEQ; Fitzgerald et al., 1999), the Schedule of Sexist Events - Appraisal (SSE-A; Klonoff & Landrine, 1997), and the Gender Experiences Questionnaire (GEQ; Leskinen & Cortina, 2014). The aim of this dissertation was testing the structure and validity of these measures among women of color. Data were collected from 483 U.S. Asian or Asian American (n = 84), Black or African American (n = 112), Latinas or Hispanic/Hispanic American (n = 78), and White or European American (n = 186) women working in traditionally masculine fields (e.g., tech, accounting, construction). Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis was used along with hierarchical regression. It was found that the measurement structures varied across Asian, Black, Latina, and White women in nuanced ways. After making several modifications, the models fit the data well for all groups, with the exception that the SEQ baseline model did not fit for Asian women. Black women reported greater stress resulting from personal sexist events (a component SSE-A) compared to both White and Asian women. Latinas reported significantly greater infantilization (a component of GEQ) compared to Asian women. Sexual harassment was examined as a predictor of four outcomes: psychological distress, job satisfaction, contest culture, and workplace belonging. Sexual harassment frequency (i.e., SEQ) pre dicted psychological distress for Asian women and Latinas but not Black women. Sexism appraisal (i.e., SSE-A) pre dicted psychological distress and job satisfaction, however, these relationships were weaker for Black women compared to Asian women and Latinas. Gender harassment frequency (i.e., GEQ) significantly predicted greater masculinity contest culture, especially for Latinas. This study provides an in-depth investigation into the structural, construct, and criterion validity of these sexual harassment measures. Racial differences in validity suggest that taking a gender-only approach to measuring workplace harassment for women of color may be insufficient.
Ni domésticas ni putas : sexual harassment in the lives of female household workers in Monterrey, Nuevo León
(2012-05) Siller Urteaga, Lorena; González-López, Gloria, 1960-; Williams, Christine C.
Sexual violence and in particular sexual harassment is an unfortunate reality in the lives of millions of Mexican women. We encounter this problem in all areas of our life: on the streets, within our families, and at work. Interestingly, some women's experiences of sexual harassment are less visible than others. This is the case of women in the occupation of paid household work. In Mexico, the fact that women household workers are sexually harassed or raped by their male employers has been silenced and at best kept as an open secret. In addition, researchers who have studied the lives of household workers barely mention it. Consequently, this master's thesis answers the following research questions: (1) Are women domestic workers vulnerable to sexual harassment? Why? and, (2) What are the social and cultural factors responsible for such vulnerabilities? I engage with these research questions by exploring the life histories of 11 women from Monterrey, Nuevo León and who have at least 5 years of working experience in the occupation, through in-depth interviews. Based on what the women shared with me I offer a collection of individual life stories followed by a feminist informed analysis of their experiences. Each story is unique and presents their views and perceptions of sexual harassment in the occupation and elsewhere. The analysis is divided in five mayor themes, which emerged in all of the interviews and explain the problematic. Although they enter the occupation knowing there are potential risks, one of which is sexual harassment, they are unable to change occupations due to limited work options. I argue that their social positionalities stemming from their gender, race, and class puts these women in a vulnerable position vis-a-vis their employers. As working class women, some from indigenous backgrounds, their employers engage in different types of discrimination, all of which construct women household workers as the other and their bodies as rapeable. At last, women blame themselves and others who have been targets of sexual harassment while freeing men from any type of accountability.
Not just a game : sexual toxicity in online gaming hurts women
(2018-12-04) Fredman, Leah Ariela; Swann, William B.; Pennebaker, James; Hopson, John; Boone, Melissa; Josephs, Robert A
It is unclear how sexual toxicity in gaming (STIG) affects women psychologically, if it prompts them to withdraw from gaming, or why it might do so. Three preliminary studies established that STIG is especially devastating to women. Preliminary Study 1 demonstrated that relative to men, women viewed STIG to be more serious and upsetting, and were more negatively impacted by STIG than non-sexual toxicity. Preliminary Study 2 found that reports of past STIG, but not past general toxicity, interacted with gender to predict posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) checklist scores in women. Furthermore, STIG uniquely predicted reporting past self-verification failure and perceived betrayal, which, in turn, mediated STIG’s effect on PTSD checklist scores. Preliminary Study 3 provided evidence that STIG impacted a new outcome variable, withdrawal from gaming. Specifically, in a sample of female gamers, reports of past STIG experiences predicted past long-term, but not short-term (e.g. quitting mid-match) withdrawal. Also, reports of past general toxicity did not predict either type of withdrawal. Study 1 replicated the findings from Preliminary Studies 2 and 3. Study 1 indicated that toxicity type interacted with gender, such that only women withdrew in the long-term from gaming following STIG (neither gender withdrew in the short-term). Additionally, Study 1 revealed that a feeling of betrayal mediated these effects. To determine the causal impact of the apparent mediators of STIG, Study 2 experimentally manipulated three potential mediators: perceptions of betrayal, self-verification, and control. Females who perceived increased feelings of self-verification from other teammates were less likely to withdraw from gaming; the other two potential mediators trended in the predicted direction but were not significant. Study 3 further validated these ideas with a qualitative study of five female gamers. The participants all believed that STIG’s effects were more serious than general toxicity, and described how combinations of betrayal and lack of self-verification exacerbated their experiences, and eventually led them to withdraw from certain games. The participants also all opined that they believed the onus to combat toxicity more effectively is on the companies, and that it is especially important to focus on combating sexual toxicity.
Porque era Afroperuana : racialized sexual harassment in Peru
(2022-07-29) Mclin Rodriguez, Mariagracia; Smith, Christen A.; Gonzalez Lopez, Gloria
This qualitative study focuses on the racialized sexual harassment experiences of Afro-Peruvian domestic workers from the organization AMUNETRAP (Asociación de Mujeres Negras Trabajadoras del Perú, Black Women Workers Association of Peru). This research examines racialized sexual harassment in Peru by using Kimberlé Crenshaw’s representational, political, and structural intersectionality frameworks. Each framework serves in analyzing an aspect of racialized sexual harassment in domestic work. The use of Critical Race Feminist theory is used to diagnose the effectiveness of reporting systems, legislation, activist organizations, and state response to the issue. Whereas few recent studies have filled gaps on sexual harassment and domestic work in other Latin American countries, there are still limited studies in the context Peru where Afro-Peruvian domestic worker’s racialized sexual harassment experiences are acknowledged, and where legislation, reporting mechanisms, and community organizations effectiveness are evaluated while simultaneously analyzing their perpetuation of anti-Black gendered racism.
Sexual harassment discourse in Egypt : a sociolinguistic analysis
(2012-05) Anderson, Kristine Ellen; Brustad, Kristen
In recent years, the issue of sexual harassment in Egyptian society has attracted a significant amount of media attention in the form of newspaper articles, academic studies, television discussion programs, social media campaigns, and blog posts. In this thesis, I examine the language used in samples taken from television discussion programs and videoblogs in which Arabic speakers directly address the topic of sexual harassment, which I term sexual harassment discourse. I analyze the linguistic characteristics of this discourse, with the aim of discovering how speakers make use of various linguistic tools to achieve a targeted reaction or desired response in their audience. I will demonstrate how these tools allow speakers to both achieve an emotional connection with their audience, which I term empathy, or to place themselves within a power hierarchy, which I term legitimacy. Ultimately, I will show that sexual harassment discourse is indicative of an emergent and innovative new kind of public discourse in Egypt.
Sexual harassment on public transit and the influence of perceptions of safety on travel behavior
(2016-05) Buckley, Nathaniel Garcelon; McCray, Talia; Mueller, Elizabeth
Sexual harassment on public transit remains an understudied and misunderstood issue within the transit planning profession. Conventional approaches to modeling travel behavior and mode choice which focus on travel time and destination, and which take a "gender-blind" approach fail to address the extent to which risk of sexual harassment and assault on public transit may influence women's travel behavior. This report examines women's perceptions of safety while using public transit, and argues that by better understanding how fear of sexual harassment influences travel behavior, planners can more effectively address women's transit needs.
Sexual harassment proclivity : dimensionality and individual differences
(2021-12-02) Sedlacek, Anna Gabrielle Borgida; Buss, David M.; Harden, Kathryn P; Legare, Cristine H; Lewis, Rebecca J
Sexual harassment proclivity is an important but understudied domain of human conduct. The most widely used measure solely assesses the use of professional power to obtain sexual favors from subordinates. This single dimension does not reflect the full scope of behaviors that are subsumed under the label of sexual harassment. Moreover, it is not clear that different types of harassing behaviors can be predicted equally well by different individual difference variables. In Study 1 (N = 298), the Likelihood to Sexually Harass scale was expanded to include a broader set of sexual harassment scenarios, which were then subjected to exploratory factor analysis. Two latent forms of sexual harassment were uncovered: coerciveness and persistence. In Study 2 (N = 310), the two-factor solution fit well in a confirmatory factor analysis and performed better than a single factor. In Study 3 (N = 403), these two factors were regressed onto a range of personality traits and beliefs—including empathy, sadism, psychopathy, and several scales related to adversarial beliefs about the opposite sex. This design enabled assessment of (a) whether the factors could be predicted by the same individual differences, and (b) which individual differences may account for unique variance in predicting harassment proclivity. Finally, to examine the persistent aspect of sexual harassment more closely, a simulated choose-your-own-adventure game was generated in Study 4 (N = 1046), in which participants were given multiple opportunities to act platonically or romantically towards an attractive member of the opposite sex in a workplace. While there may be subtle distinctions between different types of harassment, a variety of behaviors under the umbrella of sexual harassment proclivity are so strongly correlated and predicted by the same individual differences that they may be indistinguishable in practice. Both forms of harassment proclivity were consistently predicted by a suite of “dark” or predatory personality traits—particularly adversarial sexual beliefs, sadism, likelihood to rape, and sexual dominance—and Christianity. These results provide new insights and open up new research avenues into the profile of individuals who use exploitative methods to obtain sex.