Methodological problems and policy implications in sexual harassment research

Abstract

This paper argues that the ability of social research to influence legal arguments and policy decisions on sexual harassment in the workplace has been stymied by several methodological problems which are shared by most major studies on the topic. Determination of the incidence of harassment and its major sub-types is difficult because of problems with sampling (e.g., response rate, sample size) and instrument construction (e.g., number or variety of harassment categories). Additionally, severity of harassment is rarely treated as a variable.Several resolutions to these problems are presented. First, estimates of the proportion of women who have experienced harassment, as well as the proportion having experienced the major sub-types of harassment, are derived. Second, a mutually exclusive and exhaustive set of sexual harassment categories, which includes harassment types that have evolved recently from legal decisions and policy developments, is discussed. Finally, an outline of factors which might be used to assess harassment severity is presented. Resolving these issues will provide social scientists and non-scientists alike with clearer answers to the 'How much?', 'Which types?' and 'How serious?' questions about harassment. Methodological problems and policy implications in sexual harassment researchSexual harassment has been an important research topic for social scientists for over a decade, during which time a number of theoretical and empirical studies have been published. Despite this attention, it is nevertheless very difficult to determine from the literature with any degree of certainty the percentage of women who have experienced harassment recently, or a definitive list of the types of sexual harassment. As I will show in this paper, attempts to derive such basic information are stymied by several significant methodological problems shared by many research studies. A resolution of these problems is critical in order for social scientists to have a meaningful impact on legal and policy-related issues. This paper has several goals: (1) to examine the various methodological problems of previous research; (2) to provide some reasonable estimates, given the limitations of the research literature, of the percentage of women who have experienced harassment, as well as the kinds of harassment they have experienced; and (3) to outline a comprehensive categorization of sexual harassment types, along with a strategy for addressing the issue of harassment

Workplace Sexual Harassment in Two General Hospitals in Taiwan: The Incidence, Perception, and Gender Differences

“…Thus, there were no valid cases for detecting the gender differences for perception of severe types of SH. Gruber (1990) reported that the incidence of SH might be influenced by several methodological problems, such as response rate, sample size, sample diversity, and instrument construction 32) . However, due to the sensitive and embarrassing properties of the study topic, this kind of study is difficult to perform without the study design of an anonymous and self-reporting survey in Taiwan.…”

Sexual Harassment, Bullying, and School Outcomes for High School Girls and Boys

“…and then listed 14 behaviors and asked them to indicate whether and how often they had experienced each. Sexual harassment surveys have generally avoided using the term "sexual harassment" in their survey instruments because it results in a significant underreporting of behaviors that researchers or legal scholars might otherwise consider to be sexual harassment (Fitzgerald & Shullman, 1993;Gruber, 1990).…”

Students’ Perceptions of Sexual Harassment: Is It Harassment Only If the Offender Is a Man and the Victim Is a Woman?

“…Although we know that sexual harassment is a common occurrence, prevalence rates among studies have varied considerably. For example, in a review of 18 studies, the number of women who experienced sexual harassment ranged from 28% to 75% (with a median of 44%; Gruber, 1990).…”