Campus Sex in Context: Organizational Cultures and Women's Engagement in Sexual Relationships on Two American College Campuses

Abstract

An "inhabited" approach to the study of institutions examines how organizational actors produce locally distinctive meaning in response to similar institutional forces. Adopting inhabited institutionalism to the study of campus sexual life, this study draws on interviews with 54 undergraduate women at two four-year universities in the United States-Ivy U and State U-to show campus cultures unique to a university inform women's decisions to engage in hookups and/or relationships. For women attending Ivy U, an elite institution where pressure to succeed is palpable, both hookups and long-distance relationships alike are posited as advantageous for the time-crunched, preprofessional student. At State U, a public school with a party reputation, women explain their engagement in hookups as part of the "fun" of college life, while women seeking or involved in committed relationships are obligated to negotiate the effects of the party culture in their partnerships. This study challenges the notion of a monolithic sexual culture across university settings by showing how campus cultures cultivated at the local level create unique organizational conditions within which undergraduate women forge and explain their engagement in hookups and relationships alike.

Girls’ Night Out: The Role of Women‐Centered Friendship Groups in University Hookup Culture*

“…Rather, this research intends to produce new insights into women's participation in hookup culture by taking seriously the perspectives of undergraduate women and their under-standings of the meanings of their actions and the actions of others. Furthermore, Pham's (2019) study of undergraduate women at two types of post-secondary institutions in the United States illuminates the value of conducting research in different locations to better understand how institutional contexts might impact women's experiences and perceptions in hookup culture. This research, therefore, offers a unique assessment of hookup culture at a typical university in Canada.…”

Symbolic Compliance and Student Concerns: Legal Endogeneity and Title IX at American Colleges and Universities

“…It is estimated that between 20% and 25% of women undergraduates will experience sexual assault before graduating (Fisher, Daigle, and Cullen 2010). 3 Scholars suggest that these alarming numbers are partially due to the prevalence of alcohol in college sexual encounters, the relationship between sexual violence and "hooking up," and "rape culture" 4 (Armstrong and Hamilton 2013;Armstrong, Hamilton, and Sweeney 2006;Bogle 2008;Deming et al 2013;Pham 2019;Wade 2017). Indeed, sexual assault is so common on campus that young women understand their experiences of sexual violence as "normal" (Hlavka 2014).…”

In pursuit of the potential of sexual field theory: A research agenda

“…Hookup-facilitating parties are disproportionately held at disheveled locations controlled by men (Armstrong and Hamilton, 2013; Pham, 2018; Russett, 2008). Students describe these spaces as dirty, smelly, and unglamorous.…”

“…The extent to which campuses consist of sexual districts with multiple sexual fields is unknown, as is whether campuses host sexual circuits. The only research specifically aimed at documenting alternative sexual fields on campus was conducted by Pham (2018). She found that an Ivy League school was dominated by fraternities and sororities, while Greek life was marginalized at a State school.…”