Women's and Men's Reactions to Man-to-Man Sexual Harassment: Does the Sexual Orientation of the Victim Matter?

Sexual Harassment at Work in the United States

“…For instance, in both the 1980 and 1994 waves of the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board study, among those in federal government jobs, only a minority of men harassed over the past 24 months (22% of harassed men in 1980 and 21% in 1994) reported other men as perpetrators, with the proportions remaining stable over the 14 year period (DeSouza & Solberg, 2004;U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, 1981, 1988.…”

“…A few speculative essays and qualitative or small-sample studies, for instance, have typically viewed male harassment as a manifestation of hostile sexism, perpetrated by dominant heterosexual men upon weaker, more effeminate or homosexual males as a means of defending traditional gender roles (DeSouza & Solberg, 2004;Fiske & Glick, 1995;Glick & Fiske, 1996. However, large-sample survey data suggest that male harassment may be perpetrated more often by women.…”

Social class and workplace harassment during the transition to adulthood

“…Gender is a primary focus of sexual harassment literature. While some find gender variability in perceptions of sexual harassment (DeSouza & Solberg 2004;Hendrix, Rueb, & Steel, 1998), others report little or no differences in perceptions (Baker, Terpstra, & Cutler, 1990) or experiences (McCabe & Hardman, 2005). Most statistics, however, show that women disproportionately experience sexual harassment.…”

Effect of Family Configuration on Preadolescents' Decision-Making Competence

“…Past research by DeSouza and Solberg (2004) found that women endorsed significantly more severe punishment than men in a scenario of SH. The current study's results are consistent with these past findings, as women were found to disagree more strongly with forms of non punishment for an offender of SH than men.…”

“…In addition to being more susceptible to the influence of dress style (Cahoon & Edmonds, 1989), studies evaluat ing attitudes toward date rape and victim blaming (Mauer & Robinson, 2008) show that men are more likely to attribute a larger amount of responsibil ity to the victim for its occurrence than women. Similarly, past research by DeSouza and Solberg (2004) found that, in general, women endorsed significantly more severe punishment than men in a scenario of SH. For these reasons, the current study includes biological sex as a major factor in analyzing the influence of gender bias and dress style on attitudes toward SH.…”