Perception and Tolerance of Sexual Harassment: An Examination of Feminist Identity, Sexism, and Gender Roles in a Sample of Chinese Working Women

Abstract

In East Asian culture, where sex is a sensitive subject, many women still have a high recognition threshold when it comes to sexual harassment, as well as a high tolerance for it. Previous research has shown that feminist identity is effective in promoting women’s physical and mental health and buffering against the negative effects of sexual harassment, thus, it is important to clarify the role that feminist identity plays in the perception of sexual harassment. In this study, we examined whether feminist identity is related to the perception and tolerance of sexual harassment and whether feminist identity mediates the relations between sexism, gender roles, and sexual harassment perception and tolerance among Chinese working women. In a survey of 507 participants, we found that active commitment to feminism was positively correlated with women’s perception of sexual harassment, while passive acceptance of traditional gender roles was positively correlated with tolerance of sexual harassment. Mediation analysis showed that active commitment to feminism mediated the relations between sexism, gender roles, and sexual harassment perception, while passive acceptance of traditional gender roles mediated the relations between sexism and femininity with sexual harassment tolerance. We assert that feminist identity has the potential to enable women to be more perceptive and less tolerant of sexual harassment behaviors, and as such, feminist ideology should be incorporated into education for Chinese women.