Sexual Harassment of Women Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2018) / Chapter Skim
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4 Job and Health Outcomes of Sexual Harassment and How Women Respond to Sexual Harassment
4 Job and Health Outcomes of Sexual Harassment and How Women Respond to Sexual Harassment
Pages 67-92
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From page 67... ...
1 See Chapter 3 for the research on these prevalence rates. 2 There are three types of sexual harassment: gender harassment, unwanted sexual attention, and sexual coercion.
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From page 68... ...
OUTCOMES OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT FOR INDIVIDUALS Numerous robust studies have documented links between sexual harassment and declines in psychological and professional well-being. As a result, researchers have established a conceptual model of the factors that predict sexual harassment experiences (antecedents, examined in Chapter 3)
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From page 69... ...
. Not surprisingly, the research has also shown that as the frequency of sexual harassment experiences goes up, women experience significantly worse job-related and psychological outcomes (Fitzgerald et al.
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From page 70... ...
. In a meta-analysis of studies, researchers found that while both work and job withdrawal are related to sexual harassment experiences, work withdrawal was found to be more significantly related to sexual harassment than job withdrawal -- meaning targets are more likely to disengage from their work but not as likely to leave their job.
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From page 71... ...
found that the effect size of the relationship between sexual harassment experiences and organizational commitment9 was similar to the effect size for global 9 Assessed by a weighted mean correlation corrected for reliability, rc = –0.249.
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From page 72... ...
. Even worse, sexually harassed students have reported dropping classes, changing advisors, changing majors, and even dropping out of school altogether just to avoid hostile environments (Huerta et al.
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From page 73... ...
Female graduate students who indicated that they had experienced sexual harassment also reported a diminished sense of safety on campus. The University of Texas analysis of the ARC3 data suggests that across academic disciplines women who experienced sexual harassment from faculty/staff reported significantly worse physical and mental health outcomes than those who had not experienced sexual harassment.
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From page 74... ...
. Clinical evaluation has demonstrated that women who experience sexual harassment incur often inevitable and multiple losses, which contributes to psychological stress and distress and which cannot be captured by a diagnostic label.
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From page 75... ...
When women were exposed to sexist comments from a male coworker, they experienced cardiac and vascular activity similar to that displayed in threat situations.13 This kind of cardiovascular reactivity has been linked to coronary heart disease and depressed immune functioning. The researchers conclude that if women are exposed to repeated, long-term gender harassment and the resulting physical stress, they could be at risk for serious long-term health problems (Schneider, Tomaka, and Palacios 2001)
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From page 76... ...
, female students who were sexually harassed had similar negative effects regardless of their disciplinary area. However, only female medical students who experienced sexual harassment by faculty or staff showed a negative impact on safety concerns; they reported feeling less safe on campus.
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From page 77... ...
The study also found significant relations between the severity of the sexual harassment experience and Latina job satisfaction and mental health. The more severe the sexual harassment, the lower the satisfaction with work (which in turn relates to job withdrawal)
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From page 78... ...
. In a study of female employees from a public utility company, Glomb and colleagues propose that ambient sexual harassment, defined as the indirect exposure to sexual harassment or "the general or ambient level of sexual harassment in a work group as measured by the frequency of sexually harassing behaviors experience by others in a woman's work group" (1997, 309)
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From page 79... ...
In an effort to better understand the sexual harassment experiences of women in SEM fields, an area of research that has been scarcely explored, the National Academies Committee on the Impacts of Sexual Harassment in Academia commissioned the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) to conduct a series of interviews.
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From page 80... ...
confide in a friend, 35 percent of undergraduate students tell no one, and only 7 percent report the incident to a college employee. Results from the 2016 ARC3 survey at the University of Texas System confirms that students have very low reporting rates, with only 2.2 percent of all students who experienced sexual harassment reporting it to the institution and 3.2 percent disclosing the experience to someone in a position of authority at the institution.
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From page 81... ...
. Women who experience sexually harassing behaviors may also be unlikely to report because they believe or know that grievance procedures favor the institution over the individual.
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From page 82... ...
. The RTI research also reveals what women's experiences were like when they did disclose or report an incident and shows that women who shared their experiences with their supervisors, deans, or chairs rarely experienced positive outcomes.
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From page 83... ...
To illustrate how sexual harassment impacts the careers of women in science, engineering, and medicine in higher education, our committee commissioned RTI International to conduct a series of interviews with female faculty who experienced sexually harassing behaviors. When these women were asked about how they felt their experiences with sexual harassment affected their career progressions, the predominant answers from respondents was one of negative trajectories.
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From page 84... ...
Female science majors and non-SEM majors who experienced any sexual harassment by faculty or staff reported similar academic disengagement outcomes -- reporting missing class, being late for class, making excuses to get out of class, and doing poor work -- significantly more often than those who did not experience sexual harassment, while female engineering majors who experienced any sexual harassment by faculty or staff were only significantly more likely to report missing more classes and making more excuses to get out of classes than their peers who had not experienced harassment. And female medical students who experienced any sexual harassment by faculty or staff were only significantly more likely to report doing poor work than their peers who had not experienced sexual harassment.
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From page 85... ...
This has the effect of automatically reducing their options and chances for career success. Yet this protective type of networking is common and described by many women who experience sexually harassing behaviors and environments.
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From page 86... ...
(Nontenure-track faculty member in geosciences) The dependence on advisors and mentors for career advancement is another aspect of the science, engineering, and medicine academic workplace that tends to silence targets as well as limit career opportunities for both targets and bystanders.
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From page 87... ...
In a survey of female family practice residents in the United States, a significant number of those who were sexually harassed experienced the following negative effects, similar to the experiences of women in workplaces generally: poor self-esteem, depression, psychological symptoms that required therapy, and, in some cases, transferring to other training programs (Vukovich 1996)
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From page 88... ...
For example, when women scientists are told they are not the "right" person to go on field research trips, or when a senior researcher leaves the women students off the authorship list for papers or chooses only male students to work in his lab, the integrity of research is damaged because they are not upholding the value of fairness. Given that sexually harassing behavior violates at least three key values of research, sexual harassment is damaging not just to targets and bystanders, but also to the integrity of science.
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From page 89... ...
Though it is not currently known how many women leave faculty positions due to sexual harassment, we can infer from the research reviewed in this chapter that some women do leave institutions as a result of sexual harassment and that this loss is costly to individual institutions and to the advancement of knowledge. Federal and state agencies likewise invest heavily in the training and education of professionals in science, engineering, and medicine.
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From page 90... ...
Negative outcomes are evi dent across lines of industry sector, occupation, race, ethnicity, and social class, and even when women do not label their experiences as "sexual harassment." a. When women experience sexual harassment in the workplace, the pro fessional outcomes include declines in job satisfaction; withdrawal from their organization (i.e., distancing themselves from the work ei ther physically or mentally without actually quitting, having thoughts or intentions of leaving their job, and actually leaving their job)
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From page 91... ...
Women faculty in science, engineering, and medicine who experience sexual harassment report three common professional out comes: stepping down from leadership opportunities to avoid the perpetrator, leaving their institution, and leaving their field altogether.
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