Sexual Harassment of Women Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2018) / Chapter Skim
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6 Changing the Culture and Climate in Higher Education
6 Changing the Culture and Climate in Higher Education
Pages 121-168
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From page 121... ...
However, sexual harassment is not simply a problem of individual behavior. Rather, organizational climate plays a primary role in facilitating and enabling harassment.
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From page 122... ...
can be as damaging to women's success and professional advancement as the more egregious forms of sexual harassment.1 A meta-analysis of 88 studies of sexual harassment based on 93 independent samples that contained responses from 73,877 working women showed that "more intense yet less frequent harmful experiences (e.g., sexual coercion and unwanted sexual attention) and less intense but more frequent harmful experiences (which in this analysis included gender harassment and the sexist organizational climate it can create)
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Given the significance that organizational climate plays in preventing sexual harassment, this chapter focuses on six approaches that can improve the organizational climate and thereby prevent sexual harassment. Listed here from most to least novel, these approaches are what an organization committed to significantly reducing or eliminating sexual harassment in academia should work on implementing: • Create a diverse, inclusive, and respectful environment; • Diffuse the power structure and reduce isolation; • Develop supportive structures and systems for those who experience sexual harassment; • Improve transparency and accountability; • Ensure there is diverse, effective, and accountable leadership that is un
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From page 124... ...
Similarly, a respectful environment is one where civility and respectful work behavior are not just valued but also evaluated and rewarded, and this is
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This section discusses how cultural values of diversity, inclusion, and respect can be integrated into policies, procedures, formal and informal structures, organizational strategies, and human resource systems, many of which already have problematic norms and values built into them. Specifically, this section will examine faculty hiring, evaluation, and reward structures, as well as interventions to create and promote an environment that demonstrates that it actualizes the values of diversity, inclusion, and respect.
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From page 126... ...
This work highlights the importance of a bottom-up approach that relies on support from the campus community rather than from individuals at the top to change the culture of an institution. It also reveals how creating top-down policy mandates that ignore the important steps of building consensus and appreciation of the importance of a respectful workplace can lead to resentment and/or misinterpretation.
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From page 127... ...
Approaches for this include reducing bias in hiring and promotion processes, considering applicants views and actions on improving diversity and inclusion, and evaluating faculty for cooperation, respectful work behavior, and professionalism. Gender parity, specifically among faculty, is especially important, given that faculty lead and set the tone in labs, medical teams, classrooms, departments, and schools.
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From page 128... ...
• Require letters of recommendation to address applicants' leadership abili ties in terms of their professionalism and respectful work behavior. • Ask candidates direct questions about the role of respectful work behavior among all members of the academic unit and how they, as a leader, would respond if they witnessed harassing behavior among students, trainees, faculty, or staff.
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From page 129... ...
With this goal in mind, we now turn to issues of evaluating faculty for cooperation, respectful work behavior, and professionalism. Faculty Evaluation and Reward Structures Focusing evaluation and reward structures on cooperation, respectful work behavior, and professionalism rather than solely on individual-level teaching and research performance metrics could have a significant impact on improving the environment in academia.
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From page 130... ...
define a positive social climate as employee oriented, one that "displays a concern for people, respects the workers, and is interested in the personal problems of the employees." In studying such positive social climates, they found that respondents who reported that their company had a more positive social climate, as well as placed a strong emphasis on advancing gender equity in the workplace and supported family-friendly policies, reported fewer instances of unwanted sexual behavior in the workplace. Thus, a key approach to preventing sexual harassment should be to cultivate a positive, respectful social climate at every level in academia.
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While there are numerous examples of successful workplace respect and civility programs, more research is needed to determine whether it is a best practice for reducing and preventing sexual harassment. Successful workplace respect and civility interventions spin the focus of training from punitive to positive by highlighting behaviors in which employees should engage, rather than those they should avoid (such as sexual harassment)
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From page 132... ...
An outstanding question is whether interventions like CREW, in concert with other anti-harassment efforts, can be effective tools against sexual harassment in academic work settings. Reducing Bias and Responding to Harassment -- Including Bystander Intervention An organization that is committed to improving organizational climate must address issues of bias in academia.
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From page 133... ...
Bystander intervention training, for example, is an important tool in teaching people how to respond when they see problematic behavior. It has been increasingly promoted as a tool for reducing sexual misconduct, especially in contexts known to have high rates of misconduct (e.g., college campuses)
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. CPR and BMT are just two examples of skills-based trainings that center on bystander intervention.
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Additionally, Nelson and colleagues (2017) reveal examples of what egalitarian leadership styles look like in research field sites that are associated with positive environments in which sexual harassment was prevented or addressed in a responsive and responsible manner.
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Likewise, institutions could take organizational responsibility for the trainees by guaranteeing funding to the students even if the institution pulls funding from the principal investigator. Isolation also results from confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements that limit sexual harassment targets' ability to speak with others about their experiences and can serve to shield perpetrators who have harassed people repeatedly.
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From page 137... ...
Such orientation can be useful as people enter or join the campus community for the first time and annually to reinforce the information. This orientation would include information about policies; available resources and support; student, faculty, and staff code of conduct; roles and responsibilities; institutional-specific information about the Title IX office; and reporting locations.
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From page 138... ...
Rather than instituting reporting procedures that can revictimize targets of harassment, institutions could build systems of response that empower those women by providing alternative and less formal means of accessing support services, recording information, and reporting. Institutional responses to sexual harassment could place the target's needs first, similar to the best practices now in use in response to sexual assault.15 And to show true commitment to targets, institutions could provide multiple empowering mechanisms of reporting incidents that would give them the agency to bring their complaints forward and without fear of retaliation.
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From page 139... ...
Callisto's matching system has also proven to have some impact, with 15 percent of sexual assault targets revealing that they have been assaulted by the same perpetrator as another target in the system. Furthermore, targets using Callisto Campus website tend to report 3 times faster than the national average (4 months versus 11 months)
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will not be seen by campus targets as legitimate (i.e., able to handle these issues) , but "ombuds are an ideal mechanism for encouraging reporting of sexual misconduct." In April 2014 the Office of the President of the United States released Not Alone – The First Report of the White House Task Force to Protect Students From Sexual Assault, in which the White House Task Force emphasized the need to have a confidential reporting office.19 The report states that "having a confidential place to go can mean the difference between getting help and staying silent" (2)
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Importantly, the employee must also honor the target's wishes about whether to report the incident to the Title IX office.21 Increasing informal, confidential options within the complaintresponse system is important for academic institutions to create more supportive environments for those who have experienced sexual harassment. Most academic institutions have an ombuds office that serves the entire campus community, but expanding the ombuds office, perhaps to include an ombudsperson in each department or college, could provide more resources for individuals experiencing sexual harassment.
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The Commander, Navy Installations Command (CNIC) , in its Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program, provides guidance on how supervisors should be considerate of the target after a report is filed.
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IMPROVING TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY One central, and perhaps more obvious, way to prevent sexual harassment is for academic institutions to clearly demonstrate that they do not tolerate it (i.e., that they promote an organizational climate that seeks to prohibit sexual harassment)
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Where appropriate, the responses could be both educational and focused toward potential rehabilitation. Furthermore, to demonstrate that the institution is not tolerating the sexually harassing behavior, the range of potential sanctions ought to be disclosed and the disciplinary decision should be made in a fair and timely way following an investigative process that is fair to all sides.26 Importantly, the disciplinary action should not be something that is often considered a benefit for faculty, such as a reduction in teaching load or time away from campus service responsibilities.
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.28 This model provides information to keep the campus community informed, demonstrate that the institution is actively handling sexual harassment reports, and show that 27 The committee found little research on this topic; however, there is a growing body of literature on restorative justice procedures, as discussed earlier in the chapter. 28 See https://provost.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/August-2016-Report.pdf.
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Engaging the Academic Community in Policy and Practice Reviews Another approach to demonstrating that the institution takes all three forms of sexual harassment seriously is to encourage internal review of its policies, procedures, and interventions for addressing sexual harassment, and to have interactive dialogues with members of its campus community (especially expert researchers on these topics) around ways to improve the culture and climate and change behavior.
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From page 147... ...
The environment must be continually assessed and revised as new students, faculty, staff, patients, problems, and identities enter academia. Taking a formal legal and liability-focused approach has not been effective in preventing sexual harassment incidents, and leaders would benefit from drawing on the expertise of those in the science, engineering, and medical fields on campus as well as the faculty experts who study climate, culture, organizations, gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, and harassment.
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. In other words, leaders' behaviors instruct members of the community about what to expect around sexual harassment, and any formal policies will be interpreted through the organizational climate they create and maintain.
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The unique employment context of the academy thus complicates the authority of academic leaders to change workplace cultures and climates and to impose discipline for violations of professional norms, both of which are necessary to preventing and reducing sexual harassment. Leadership education, training, and support can enhance the ability of all academic leaders to address sexual harassment.
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Reviews and critiques of sexual harassment incidents and workplace climate assessments should be a part of routine professional development for leadership teams inside institutions and across professions. EFFECTIVE SEXUAL HARASSMENT TRAINING While sexual harassment training is the most traditional approach to preventing sexual harassment, it has not been shown to do so.
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Given that changing behavior has more of a direct link to reducing sexual harassment, that actions can be taken to inhibit sexually harassing behavior (even among those that hold sexist attitudes or beliefs that rationalize or justify harassment, see Chapter 2) , and that changing attitudes is difficult, effort seems better spent on developing and using sexual harassment trainings aimed at changing people's behaviors rather than on their attitudes and beliefs.
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the organizational context is supportive of the SH [sexual harassment] training efforts." Based on their examination of the theory and empirical findings of sexual harassment literature, Roehling and Huang provide a conceptual framework for organizing and understanding sexual harassment training effectiveness and the primary factors that interact to influence it.
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From page 153... ...
. To the extent that the general training literature provides broad guidelines for creating impactful training that can change organizational climate and behavior, they include the following: • Cater training to specific populations; in academia this would include students, postdoctoral fellows, staff, faculty, and those in leadership.
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Our committee believes effective sexual harassment training can positively affect organizational climate, change behavior, and reduce workplace harassment; however, it recognizes that even effective training cannot occur in a vacuum -- "it must be part of a holistic culture of non-harassment that starts at the top" (Feldblum and Lipnic 2016, v)
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From the ARC3 website:32 ARC3 is not a membership organization. It is a collaborative of sexual assault researchers and student affairs professionals who came together to respond to the White House Task Force on Keeping Students Safe on Campus, particularly the need to develop a campus climate survey informed by all who would use it. Participants met at the Campus Climate Forum at Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, in October 2014.
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All of the tools and approaches in this section can be useful in evaluating an institution's climate and the progress it is making to prevent sexual harassment.
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Begun in the United Kingdom, the Athena SWAN program has built-in incentives for departments and institutions as a whole to meet high standards in promoting gender equity and diversity. A key incentive is obtaining bronze-, silver-, and gold-level awards for both achievement and improvement.
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Beyond individuals, the 2013 study by the Equality Challenge Unit also examined ways in which Athena SWAN could improve institutional practices. The study noted that the implementation of Athena SWAN at higher education institutions in the United Kingdom provided "credibility, focus, and impetus for gender work already taking place in [higher education institution]
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. Other research funding organizations in the United Kingdom are considering similar requirements for institutions to be eligible for research funding37, 38 or are recommending Athena SWAN could serve as the evidence needed to demonstrate an institution is taking action to address equality and diversity.39 The United States is currently adapting Athena SWAN by building a program called STEM Equity Achievement (SEA Change)
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Sexual harassment in academic science, engineering, and medicine cannot be addressed in higher education if the standards of behavior are not also upheld in these off-campus environments. Professional societies have more freedom to develop independent policies and practices for dealing with sexual harassment than federal agencies have, so they are in an ideal position to take action in preventing sexual harassment and affecting cultural change.
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. For example, the code of conduct section of the AGU Ethics Policy states: We affirm that discrimination, harassment (including sexual harassment)
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Further, they should use their influence to address sexual harassment in the scientific, medical, and engineering communities they represent and promote a professional culture of civility and respect. Collaborative field sites, where researchers from a wide range of institutions frequently gather for use of specific facilities, should establish standards of behavior and set policies, procedures, and practices similar to those recommended for academic institutions and following the examples of professional societies.
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Therefore, a comprehensive discussion about addressing sexual harassment in higher education would be incomplete without taking these field sites into consideration.
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d. An organization that is committed to improving organizational climate must address issues of bias in academia.
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e. An approach for improving transparency and demonstrating that the institution takes sexual harassment seriously is to encourage internal review of its policies, procedures, and interventions for addressing sexual harassment, and to have interactive dialogues with members of their campus community (especially expert researchers on these topics)
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Enacting new codes of conduct and new rules related specifically to conference attendance. 50 Athena SWAN (Scientific Women's Academic Network)
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Policies, procedures, trainings, and interventions, specifically how they prevent and stop sexually harassing behavior, alter perception of or ganizational tolerance for sexually harassing behavior, and reduce the negative consequences from reporting the incidents. This includes infor mal and formal reporting mechanisms, bystander intervention training, academic leadership training, sexual harassment training, interventions to improve civility, mandatory reporting requirements, and approaches to supporting and improving communication with the target.
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