Prevention of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace and Educational Settings

Abstract

The American Academy of Pediatrics is committed to working to ensure that workplaces and educational settings in which pediatricians spend time are free of sexual harassment. The purpose of this statement is to heighten awareness and sensitivity to this important issue, recognizing that institutions, clinics, and officebased practices may have existing policies. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMAlthough this policy statement focuses on medical schools and hospitals, the same principles apply to other professional settings including publicly and privately supported clinics and office-based practices regardless of the number of employees.More than one third of female physicians perceive that they have been sexually harassed. Research supports the significance of the problem in the medical education setting. According to a study of female physicians, sexual harassment has been found to be more common among individuals in medical school (20%) or during internship, residency, or fellowship (19%) than in practice (11%). 1 Although conventional wisdom has held that sexual harassment is perpetrated only on women, 13.5% of sexual harassment charges brought to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2001 were from men. This represented an almost twofold increase in reports by men compared with the previous decade. 2 Despite increasing awareness about sexual harassment in the workplace, a survey of hospital human resources managers in 2002 indicated that among the sexual harassment allegations lodged over 4.5 years, physicians were the reported perpetrators 15% of the time, up from 10% 7 years earlier, and 10% of sexual harassment complaints were filed by men. 3 Gender discrimination and/or sexual harassment were reported in all academic contexts by 69% of female and 33% of male graduating medical students in a 1997 survey of 14 US medical schools, with 63% of women and 30% of men describing these problem behaviors during their core clerkships. 4 In another survey of 1001 graduating students from 8 US medical schools, 21% of the female students and 2% of the male students reported that they had experienced some form of sexual harassment in medical school. 5 In a 1991 survey of second-year residents about their working and learning environment, 63% of female respondents reported having experienced at least 1 episode of sexual harassment or discrimination. 6 A survey of full-time faculty at 24 US medical schools found that 52% of female and 5% of male faculty indicated that they had been sexually harassed by a superior or www.pediatrics.org/cgi