Op-Ed on Sexual Harassment in IDS
In today's IDS there was an opinion article (page 7 of the main section) concerning sexual harassment:
Iowa study should open IU's eyes
WE SAY: Students need to be more educated about sexual harassment
IDS Editorial Board
Published Thursday, February 2, 2006
A study released by the University of Iowa reported that on its campus, two-thirds of its respondents had been victims of sexual harassment-like behavior in the past 10 years. The kicker? Only about 6 percent reported it.
Those surveyed were asked about eight types of behavior which might constitute sexual harassment. Fifty-two percent reported that they had experienced one or more of the eight categories, but when asked explicitly if they had been sexually harassed in the last 10 years at the University of Iowa, 62 percent said no. Of those who had been harassed, more than half said they were unaware of the current procedure for registering a complaint.
The study focuses on the University of Iowa only, but the implications on a larger scale are easy to see. Sexual harassment is, and will likely continue to be, a problem nationwide. The point here, though, is that while this type of behavior is common, it goes largely unreported. Reporting it carries a stigma, and people are often reluctant to label unwelcome behavior as sexual harassment. The Iowa study highlights this and creates important possibilities for campuses across the country.
If more people are aware that sexual harassment is this common, more will be likely to report it, or more importantly, to become aware of their own behavior. It's a double-edged sword, though -- if more people report sexual harassment, the statistics will appear to report an increase. But this is the point where we all remember that the purpose of sexual harassment policies aren't created to feed the statistics machine, but rather to improve a given community.
For the record, IU's sexual harassment policy is easy to find: www.indiana.edu/~affirm/pdf/sexualha.pdf. It's only two pages long, is pretty user-friendly and includes lucid, usable definitions of sexual harassment. For that, we say, go Hoosiers!
But we also hope the Iowa study makes an impact here in Bloomington. Transparency is always a goal, and increased knowledge about what constitutes sexual harassment, increased awareness of University policy and general conscientiousness about appropriateness will only work toward making IU a better community.
The first, and most hard-hitting recommendation in the Iowa study, read, "It is critical that the University of Iowa dedicate energy and resources toward ensuring that its community knows about, understands, and feels free to use its sexual harassment policy and procedures."
We believe that IU is a great community, but any steps that can be taken to make it inclusive and caring should be taken. Let's take home the lessons of the Iowa study and work together toward making IU the best it can be.
I went searching around, and the complete study can be found at http://www.uiowa.edu/president/task-forces/sexual_harass_survey/Sexual%20Harassment%20Survey%20Final%20Report%20012306.pdf.
It's really long, about 180 pages, but I did quickly skim through it. In addition to this article, I have been reading for my book report a memoir about same-sex harassment. In my book (Stopping the Train, in case anybody cared to know), the victim's perpetrators amounted their assaults to "kidding around". And a lot of the survey deals with things that may not originally be harassing in nature, but if repeated could create a hostile environment (i.e. comments about clothing, jokes that are sexually explicit, spam advertising sexual performance-enhancing drugs, etc.).
This got me thinking...Does IU (or any college at that) unintentionally create an atmosphere that lends itself easily to situations that can be constituted as sexual harassment? Has our definition and standards of what is sexual harassment changed or declined? And does our school do much to address this important issue?
Personally, I think that the college culture is really a world of gray where sexual harassment is concerned. In general, our generation is more crass and more tolerant of language, clothing, jokes, gestures, etc. that are more sexual in nature (i.e. how women can be called "whores" or even how we dance) . I can see how easy it would be for someone to genuinely think that some act that could be considered sexual harassment was just "kidding around" or just a normal result of getting drunk. As far as IU is concerned, I had not even read the sexual harassment policy until today. I assume it's someone lost in the student guideline handbook, where it's easily overlooked, and never mentioned. I think colleges need to make an extra effort to inform its students of sexual harassment policies and reporting procedures because I feel the college environment is very susceptible to such incidents.
Anyhow, just wondered if anybody else had an opinion.
Iowa study should open IU's eyes
WE SAY: Students need to be more educated about sexual harassment
IDS Editorial Board
Published Thursday, February 2, 2006
A study released by the University of Iowa reported that on its campus, two-thirds of its respondents had been victims of sexual harassment-like behavior in the past 10 years. The kicker? Only about 6 percent reported it.
Those surveyed were asked about eight types of behavior which might constitute sexual harassment. Fifty-two percent reported that they had experienced one or more of the eight categories, but when asked explicitly if they had been sexually harassed in the last 10 years at the University of Iowa, 62 percent said no. Of those who had been harassed, more than half said they were unaware of the current procedure for registering a complaint.
The study focuses on the University of Iowa only, but the implications on a larger scale are easy to see. Sexual harassment is, and will likely continue to be, a problem nationwide. The point here, though, is that while this type of behavior is common, it goes largely unreported. Reporting it carries a stigma, and people are often reluctant to label unwelcome behavior as sexual harassment. The Iowa study highlights this and creates important possibilities for campuses across the country.
If more people are aware that sexual harassment is this common, more will be likely to report it, or more importantly, to become aware of their own behavior. It's a double-edged sword, though -- if more people report sexual harassment, the statistics will appear to report an increase. But this is the point where we all remember that the purpose of sexual harassment policies aren't created to feed the statistics machine, but rather to improve a given community.
For the record, IU's sexual harassment policy is easy to find: www.indiana.edu/~affirm/pdf/sexualha.pdf. It's only two pages long, is pretty user-friendly and includes lucid, usable definitions of sexual harassment. For that, we say, go Hoosiers!
But we also hope the Iowa study makes an impact here in Bloomington. Transparency is always a goal, and increased knowledge about what constitutes sexual harassment, increased awareness of University policy and general conscientiousness about appropriateness will only work toward making IU a better community.
The first, and most hard-hitting recommendation in the Iowa study, read, "It is critical that the University of Iowa dedicate energy and resources toward ensuring that its community knows about, understands, and feels free to use its sexual harassment policy and procedures."
We believe that IU is a great community, but any steps that can be taken to make it inclusive and caring should be taken. Let's take home the lessons of the Iowa study and work together toward making IU the best it can be.
I went searching around, and the complete study can be found at http://www.uiowa.edu/president/task-forces/sexual_harass_survey/Sexual%20Harassment%20Survey%20Final%20Report%20012306.pdf.
It's really long, about 180 pages, but I did quickly skim through it. In addition to this article, I have been reading for my book report a memoir about same-sex harassment. In my book (Stopping the Train, in case anybody cared to know), the victim's perpetrators amounted their assaults to "kidding around". And a lot of the survey deals with things that may not originally be harassing in nature, but if repeated could create a hostile environment (i.e. comments about clothing, jokes that are sexually explicit, spam advertising sexual performance-enhancing drugs, etc.).
This got me thinking...Does IU (or any college at that) unintentionally create an atmosphere that lends itself easily to situations that can be constituted as sexual harassment? Has our definition and standards of what is sexual harassment changed or declined? And does our school do much to address this important issue?
Personally, I think that the college culture is really a world of gray where sexual harassment is concerned. In general, our generation is more crass and more tolerant of language, clothing, jokes, gestures, etc. that are more sexual in nature (i.e. how women can be called "whores" or even how we dance) . I can see how easy it would be for someone to genuinely think that some act that could be considered sexual harassment was just "kidding around" or just a normal result of getting drunk. As far as IU is concerned, I had not even read the sexual harassment policy until today. I assume it's someone lost in the student guideline handbook, where it's easily overlooked, and never mentioned. I think colleges need to make an extra effort to inform its students of sexual harassment policies and reporting procedures because I feel the college environment is very susceptible to such incidents.
Anyhow, just wondered if anybody else had an opinion.
posted by Anonymous at
7:14 PM
1 Comments:
One thing that I think is important to keep in mind with this study is that the survey was not designed to, nor was it the authors' intent to, describe "sexual harassment" as it would be by judges or attorneys. In other words, what might constitute "sexual harassment" for the purposes of the survey report and analysis might or might not constitute "sexual harassment" under any relevant federal or state law. The authors state as much in the following excerpt from the report:
As noted earlier, the purpose of the current survey was in large measure to identify the extent of sexual harassment and sexually harassing behaviors on campus. It is the responsibility of the University of Iowa to provide an environment that is free from such behaviors and, as such, it is imperative that we first understand the current level of such behaviors. It is not the purpose (or function) of this survey to assess the level of sexual harassment from the perspective of a judge or lawyer, i.e. we did not set out to determine the extent of the University’s liability for these behaviors or whether the behaviors would be considered sexual harassment in a court of law.
Instead, the Task Force had two goals for the survey: (1) determine the extent of people’s perception that sexual harassment was occurring and (2), determine the extent of the occurrence of behaviors that might constitute sexual harassment and that at a minimum, were unwelcome. The latter determination, sexually harassing behaviors, was particularly important because research has shown that responders often will not label behavior as sexual harassment because either they don’t know it constitutes sexual harassment or they want to avoid the stigma of sexual harassment. Therefore, to be serious about understanding the extent of sexual harassment and unwelcomed sexual behavior on this campus, it is imperative that we go beyond an individual responders’ willingness to label behavior as sexual harassment and ask about the behaviors themselves. That is, the emphasis needs to be on unwelcomed behaviors per se; to date, unwelcomeness is the touchstone of most sexual harassment determinations. Moreover, unwelcomed behaviors are often disrespectful behaviors; assuming the overarching goal of the University of Iowa is to provide an environment that is respectful of all people, unwelcomed sexual behavior is unacceptable.
This potential survey methodology/legal sufficiency disconnect is especially stark when single incidents of unwelcome sexual behavior are considered in isolation. In the employment context, for example, very few single, isolated incidents are considered severe or pervasive enough to constitute a change in the terms or conditions of employment, as required to find a violation of Title VII.
That being said, I don't mean to suggest the survey is unhelpful, uninteresting, or inaccurate. In my mind, it's none of those. Nor do I mean to take issue with Ginger's observations. As the authors of the study suggest, a single incident of unwelcome sexual behavior is certainly disrespectful. Ginger's question of whether the University is doing enough to educate, prevent, and remedy that kind of behavior is a good one (and one that you all are better suited to answer than me, most likely).
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