Scorned by men and pursued by women: sexual harassment of heterosexual working men

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to explore how sexual harassment is experienced and understood by heterosexual working men in their day-to-day work lives in an Asian patriarchal culture, underpinned by rigid sex-role norms and gender role stereotypes, which promote heterosexual hegemonic masculinityDesign/methodology/approachUsing qualitative research approach, 19 in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with self-identified heterosexual men.FindingsThe findings indicate common, yet unique, ways heterosexual men experience sexual harassment at workplaces, perpetrated by women and men, holding different organizational positions. Unwanted sexual attention, gender harassment, sexploitation and sexual hubris are, thus, identified as the main manifestations of sexual harassment for men. The nature of the experiences, how they were understood and perceived by heterosexual men, who the harassers were, how men have responded to their experiences and the existing theories point toward numerous explanations for the heterosexual men’s experiences of sexual harassment. Among these reasons, hegemonic masculinity, power and sexual attraction were found to be predominant.Originality/valueThe themes and explanations of different and sometimes unique sexual harassment experiences expand and add to the understudied area of sexual harassment of heterosexual men in general, and in a cultural context, rarely explored, more specifically.