Abstract
This study explored women's perceptions of videotaped portrayals of sexual harassment. Ninety female undergraduates viewed a video of a male teaching assistant evaluating a female undergraduate's term paper. Videos contained either no, subtle, or explicit sexual harassment. Following the videos, subjects completed measures of perceptions of the teaching assistant. Results indicated that women perceived sexual harassment in the videos that contained it, but most did not explicitly label the behavior as sexual harassment until they were cued to do so.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bond, M. A. (1988). Division 27 Sexual Harassment Survey: Definition, impact, and environmental context. The Community Psychologist, 21, 7–10.
Cammaert, L. P. (1985). How widespread is sexual harassment on campus? International Journal of Women's Studies, 8, 388–397.
Cohen, A. G., & Gutek, B. (1985). Dimensions of perceptions of social-sexual behavior in a work setting. Sex Roles, 13, 317–327.
DiVasto, P. V., Kaufman, A., Rosner, L., Jackson, R., Christy, J., Pearson, S., & Burgett, T. (1984). The prevalence of sexually stressful events among females in the general population. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 13, 59–67.
Fitzgerald, L. F., Shullman, S. L., Bailey, N., Richards, M., Swecker, J., Gold, Y., Ormerod, M., & Weitzman, L. (1988). The incidence and dimensions of sexual harassment in academia and the workplace. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 32, 152–175.
Gutek, B. A., Morasch, B., & Cohen, A. G. (1983). Interpreting social-sexual behavior in a work setting. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 22, 30–48.
Hunter College Women's Career Development Research Collective. (1988, March). Women's attitudes and attributions about sexual and gender harassment. Symposium conducted at the Association for Women in Psychology Conference, Bethesda, MD.
Jensen, I. W., & Gutek, B. (1982). Attributions and assignment of responsibility in sexual harassment. Journal of Social Issues, 38, 121–136.
Maypole, D. E. (1986). Sexual harassment of social workers at work: Injustice within? Social Work, 31, 29–34.
Padgitt, S. C., & Padgitt, J. S. (1986). Cognitive structure of sexual harassment: Implications for university policy. Journal of College Student Personnel, 27, 34–39.
Powell, G. N. (1986). Effects of sex role identity and sex on definitions of sexual harassment. Sex Roles, 14, 9–19.
United States Merit Systems Protection Board. (1981). Sexual harassment in the workplace: Is it a Problem? Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jaschik, M.L., Fretz, B.R. Women's perceptions and labeling of sexual harassment. Sex Roles 25, 19–23 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00289313
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00289313