Perceiving sexual harassment and #metoo social media campaign among Chinese female college students

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study responds to the alarmingly frequent occurrence of sexual harassment (SH) in Chinese colleges by investigating female college students’ experience, tolerance of SH and evaluation of the #metoo social media campaign. Guided by the system justification theory, this study has confirmed the association between their tolerance of SH, the traditional gender role value and hostile sexism they hold. In total, 31% of variance of tolerance of SH can be explained by the variables of cultural values and sex information access. Hostile sexism is significantly predictive of tolerance of SH, but not of the evaluation of the #metoo campaign. As the first of its kind, this study has demonstrated the positive relationships between family sex communication, school sex education and the tolerance of SH in current China. Moreover, the respondents’ evaluation on the #metoo social media campaign is reversely related to their family sex communication. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.