What to do about sexual harassment on campus has troubled higher education leaders for decades. The courts and regulatory authorities have clearly stated that institutions must develop and implement clear policies that prohibit unlawful harassment and provide a procedure for harassment complaints. Once a complaint is received, the institution is responsible for investigating and taking appropriate action to stop future misconduct. When the accused harasser is an instructor, additional factors must be considered. For example, instructors may have particular due process rights associated with their status or, depending on the nature of the allegations, an interest in academic freedom or free speech rights that may be breached by the institution's response to the complaint. Recent guidance from the United States Departments of Justice and Education direct institutions to be aggressive in encouraging victims to report harassment and to take decisive action to ensure that no further harassment occurs, even before the investigation is concluded and guilt is assessed. Institutions are concerned that this regulatory pressure goes too far and exposes institutions to liability for infringing the rights of accused instructors. This study examines litigation in the federal appeals courts from 1993-2013 involving lawsuits filed by harassment victims and accused higher education instructors. The study evaluates institutional responsibilities to victims and accused instructors as reflected in 58 different appellate decisions for the purpose of answering two research questions: 1. How have courts responded to lawsuits against colleges and universities brought by alleged victims claiming that they were harassed by instructors? 2. How have courts responded to lawsuits alleging that colleges and universities have infringed on the rights of instructors who have been accused of sexual harassment? The litigation environment was relatively consistent in overall frequency during the study's time frame. Given the small fraction of cases that ever reach the court of appeals, it is apparent that sexual harassment litigation remains a frequently litigated subject. Cases involving some aspect of the institution's response to harassment complaints or retaliation for complaining about harassment were by far the most frequently litigated issues in victim cases. Lawsuits by faculty most often alleged violations of free speech rights or due process shortcomings. Institutions prevailed in a significant majority of all the cases indicating that they had a good understanding of the rights of the parties on both sides of these disputes. The study concludes with a discussion that highlights the lessons learned from the court rulings, some recommendations for policy and practice, and consideration of the dilemmas presented by the recent federal guidance for colleges and universities.

This qualitative study is about New Zealand couples who, by choice, do not have children. Strong social norms exist for couples to have children, and those who express a desire to do otherwise have been disbelieved, pressured, and stereotyped. Womanhood has continued to be associated with motherhood, and a maternal instinct is expected to drive women to have children. The aim of this research was to add to knowledge and awareness of how childfree people have experienced being stereotyped, pressured and harassed for being childfree. For this research, I conjointly interviewed ten heterosexual, childfree couples residing in the city of Hamilton. Participants self-identified as childfree, and ranged in age from 23 to 56 years old. Five of the couples also participated in a focus group. Participants related the ways in which they perceived that the wider social context played a role in the negative responses they experienced. Participants revealed how they felt less socially valued through: an idealization of parenthood, exclusion from work benefits, and an expectation that women should manage both employment and motherhood. Stereotyping was found to still occur, with participants reporting that they were labelled as selfish, immature, and anti-children. Stereotypes of being destined for loneliness in later life, and of their pets being substitutes for children were common. Some evidence was found in participants' comments that there were elements of truth in stereotypes of the childfree. The negative stereotyping appeared to have little, if any, impact on how participants viewed or felt about themselves. Participants reported feeling harassed by other people's disbelief in their choice, and assumptions, that despite what they said, everybody wanted children. The pressures experienced by participants took various forms, such as persistent questioning, and came from various sources, including siblings and acquaintances. Participants' reports of feeling pressured or harassed seem to reflect minor and fleeting feelings, rather than a continuing concern. How pressuring comments were perceived by the recipient was very context-dependent. Participants tolerated and coped with people's negative responses by various methods, such as confronting, ignoring, and avoiding the topic of children with certain people. I recommend that further research be done, and that work is needed to promote both acceptance of the childfree option, and freedom of women's identification from association with childbearing.

This thesis highlights the importance of workers’ perceptions of and attitudes to sexual harassment. Past researchers have found that a variety of individual factors (age, gender, gender role, and past experiences of sexual harassment), and organisational factors (gender ratio, sexual harassment policies and the role of employers), correlate with the incidence of sexually harassing behaviours. Two studies presented in this thesis extend this research and were designed to investigate how these factors relate to workers’ attitudes towards and perceptions of sexual harassment. Study one investigated 176 workers from a large, white-collar organisation. Study two sampled 75 workers from a smaller, blue-collar organisation. By comparing two different workplaces the effect of the organisational climate was investigated. Individuals from Study two experienced more sexual harassment, were more tolerant of sexual harassment and perceived less behaviour as sexual harassment compared with individuals from Study one. The organisational context was found to affect the way in which organisational and individual factors related to workers' attitudes to and their experiences of sexual harassment. However, the factors that influenced workers’ perceptions of sexual harassment were stable across both studies. Although workers’ attitudes to and their perceptions of sexual harassment were significantly correlated, they were influenced by different factors. Overall, workers’ perceptions of sexual harassment were influenced by their attitudes, the behavioural context, and the gender of the victim and perpetrator. In contrast, attitudes to sexual harassment appeared to be more strongly influenced by individual factors, such as age, gender, gender role, past experiences of sexual harassment, and perceptions of management’s tolerance of sexual harassment. The broader implications of these findings are discussed and recommendations for future research are suggested.

Although feminists resist accounts that define women as having certain features that are essential to their being women, feminists are also guilty of giving essentialist definitions. Because women are extremely diverse in their experiences, the essentialist critics question whether a universal (non-essentialist) account of women can be given. I argue that it is possible to formulate a valuable category of woman, despite potential essentialist challenges. Even with diversity among women, women are oppressed as women by patriarchal structures such as rape, pornography, and sexual harassment that regulate women’s sexuality and construct women as beings whose main role is to service men’s sexual needs.

Sexual harassment is associated with negative consequences for victims and bystanders. Because 9 in 10 victims do not report harassment, understanding bystanders' reactions to sexual harassment is important. Thus, my dissertation?s purpose was to advance the literature by analyzing bystanders' responses to sexual harassment by means of three studies. In Study 1, I examined bystanders' preferred punishment as a function of the harassment type and organizational culture. Participants were undergraduates (N=107) enrolled in physical activity classes at a Southwestern United States university (males n=53, 50%, females n=53, 50%; largely Caucasian n=79, 74.5%; age M=21.61, SD=2.70). The results indicate that harassment type affected bystanders' punishment preferences (B=.55, p<0.01). While the workplace culture did not directly affect punishment preferences (B=-.06, p=0.49), it moderated the relationship between harassment type and preferred punishment (R2=.03, B=.31, p&lt;0.05) such that quid-proquo harassment in proactive organizations resulted in the harshest punishment recommendations. In Study 2, I analyzed bystanders' reactions to different punishment levels delivered to the harasser. Participants were undergraduates (N=122) enrolled in activity classes at a Southwestern United States university (males n=68, 56.2%, females n=53, 43.8%; largely Caucasian n=94, 77.7%; age M=20.00, SD=2.00). The results revealed that congruity, or lack thereof, between their preferred punishment and the actual punishment affected their negative emotions (R2=0.04, B=-0.30, p&lt;0.01), organizational justice perceptions (R2=0.11, B=0.47, p&lt;0.01), and cultural consistency beliefs (R2=0.02, B=0.19, p&lt;0.05). In Study 3, I investigated bystanders? responses to different harassment levels as influenced by the organizational culture. Participants were undergraduates (N=183) enrolled in activity classes at a Southwestern United States university (males n=113, 61.7%, females n=66, 36.1%; largely Caucasian n=132, 72.1%; age M=19.84, SD=1.37). The results indicated that the harassment severity was positively associated with bystanders' intentions to intervene (B=.32, p&lt;0.001). The type of organizational culture did not affect willingness to act (B=-.07, p=0.32), possibly given the personal investment required by taking action. Alternatively, personal characteristics (i.e., political views) may supersede environmental influences. Collectively, these findings reiterate literature documenting harassment types? differential severity. Also, they outline additional advantages to promoting a proactive organizational culture. Finally, the influence of individual and environmental factors in decision making is highlighted.

Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 1999. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains iv, 114 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 109-114).

Diss. Uppsala : Uppsala universitet, 2007.

Thesis (doctoral)--Kiel, Universität, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 199-211).

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. / text

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. / text