Women's Responses to Sexual Harassment: A Multivariate Analysis

Abstract

The response patterns of women who had experienced sexual harassment were analyzed. The harassment targets were part of a large, representative sample of Canadian women (n = 1,990) who were interviewed about their experiences with public or workplace harassment. Descriptive analyses revealed that women generally gave fairly nonassertive responses to harassment particularly when (a) the harassment was not severe, (b) the source was not a supervisor or employer, (c) there were few workplace policies or procedures on sexual harassment, (d) their occupational group consisted mostly of other women, or (e) they did not believe that sexual harassment was a power issue, Multivariate analyses revealed that harassment severity, source of harassment, and being in an occupation in which women were a threatening minority were the strongest predictors of response assertiveness. Also, harassment severity and source of harassment were the strongest predictors of women who quit their jobs due to harassment. The nonassertiveness of women's responses is discussed in terms of cultural and organizational roles and women's attempts to manage strained work relationships. Women and men are socialized to expect that women will manage emotional and sexual interactions between the two sexes. These expectations may spill over into the workplace and result in sexual harassment unless there is a concerted effort by the work organization to combat such problems. Policy implications are also discussed.

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