Sexual and gender harassment at university: Experiences and perceptions of australian women

Abstract

Abstract The present study investigated women students' experience and perceptions of sexual and gender harassment on a university campus, using an adapted version of the Sexual Experiences Questionnaire. Although only 31.7% of students perceived that they had been sexually harassed, 91.3% reported at least one form of behaviour which could be perceived as sexually harassing: 88.1% from students and 53.2% from academics. Academics mainly engaged in gender harassment. Behaviours which students perceived as sexually harassing were students making unwanted attempts at establishing a sexual relationship, academics and students making sexist remarks about women's behaviour and career options, and students making crude or offensive sexual remarks. Students were more likely to perceive that they had been sexually harassed by academics than by students when sexist remarks about women's behaviour and career options were made, lending partial support to the hypothesis that hierarchical level of relationship influen...