When Sexism and Feminism Collide

Abstract

The current study examined how feminism relates to women's experiences of sexual harassment-that is, unwanted sexual and sexist conduct in the workplace. We posited that feminism would have both costs (e.g., increasing exposure to harassment) and benefits (e.g., decreasing harassment-related outcomes). We assessed two indicators of feminism: selfidentification as ''feminist'' and engagement in feminist activism. We also measured two subtypes of sexual harassment: sexual-advance and gender harassment. According to survey data from 424 working women, feminist identification predicted fewer gender harassment experiences; once harassed, however, feminist-identified women reported the greatest decrease in job satisfaction and increase in turnover intentions. In contrast, feminist activism related to greater experiences of both kinds of harassment, and activism attenuated some negative outcomes. We further found that (regardless of feminist identification or activism) women who had faced sexual-advance harassment were over 7 times more likely to attach the ''sexual harassment'' label to their experiences, compared to women who had experienced gender harassment alone. In light of our findings, we recommend that sexual harassment laws, policies, and trainings be broadened to encompass all varieties of sexual harassment, including non-stereotypical, non-sexual conduct. Organizations would also benefit from interventions that reduce bias against undervalued persons, including feminists.

“It was only harmless banter!” The development and preliminary validation of the moral disengagement in sexual harassment scale

“…The scale depicts an array of social-sexual behavior which is broadly equivalent to the categories of gender harassment and sexual-advance harassment (Holland & Cortina, 2013;Leskinen et al, 2011;Leskinen & Cortina, 2014); both of which create a hostile work environment. In three studies (using varied recruitment procedures), the MDiSH displayed excellent psychometric properties, high levels of internal consistency, and correlational analyses demonstrated strong evidence for the new measure's convergent and discriminant construct validity.…”

“…The items contained in the MDiSH reflect an array of social-sexual behavior that broadly map on to the two superordinate categories of gender harassment and sexual-advance harassment; both of which create a hostile work environment (Holland & Cortina, 2013;Leskinen et al, 2011;Leskinen & Cortina, 2014). Based on our conceptual framework and a comprehensive literature review of moral disengagement, items were generated to represent each of the eight mechanisms.…”

A Needs-Based Support for #MeToo: Power and Morality Needs Shape Women’s and Men’s Support of the Campaign

“…For example, men are more likely to engage in sexual harassment when their masculine identity (Hitlan et al, 2009) or social status is threatened (Berdahl, 2007), when they feel that the legitimacy and distinctiveness of the current status quo is under threat (Maass et al, 2003), when they are afraid to be perceived as incompetent (Halper and Rios, 2019), and toward women who express egalitarian, rather than traditional gender-role attitudes (Dall'Ara and Maass, 1999). Although women identifying as feminists experience as much sexual harassment as other women, women engaging in feminist activism suffered more genderbased harassment (Holland and Cortina, 2013). This finding also fits with recent research suggesting that advantaged group members' opposition to policies that empower disadvantaged groups stems both from moral motivations (i.e., the wish to defend their ingroup's positive moral identity, in the face of accusation that they enjoy unearned privilege), and from their wish to maintain power (Kahalon et al, 2019).…”

Boundaries and Borders: How Do Recipients Interpret Social-Sexual Behaviour at Work?

“…There are only very few studies that have directly explored the relationship between personality types and sexual harassment sensitivity (Crow et al, 1995). Yet, different facets of the personality such as self-esteem (Crow et al, 1995;Malovich & Stake, 1990), attitudes (Foulis & McCabe, 1997) and self-identification as a feminist and engagement in women's rights activism (Holland & Cortina, 2013) can be identified as affecting sexual harassment sensitivity. Women with higher self-esteem (Crow et al, 1995;Malovich & Stake, 1990) and those who are more self-assured, unworried and complacent are said to be less bothered by certain sexual conducts (Wear, Aultman, & Borges, 2007).…”

“…Wear et al (2007) call these individuals more "thick-skinned" rather than "threat-sensitive". At the same time, women with feminist attitudes are found to be less tolerant of sexual conduct at work (Foulis & McCabe, 1997;Holland & Cortina, 2013) and hence might interpret a broader set of sexual conducts at work as harassing.…”