Sexual Harassment of Women in the South African Navy

Abstract

We report on a study that investigated sexual harassment within the South African Navy. We firstly used a survey to examine the prevalence of sexual harassment in the shore-based fleet, just prior to the gender integration of naval ships, and found evidence of widespread sexual harassment. Secondly, we used interviews and focus groups to examine the experiences of sexual harassment on ships one year after gender integration, and found a relative absence of sexual harassment. A number of contributing factors are considered (e.g. methodological issues, organisational factors, contextual constructions of masculinity), before informal mechanisms of behaviour regulation (e.g. the enactment of informal discipline, and sailors' use of metaphors) are introduced as mechanisms to understand the differences between the survey and interview findings. We argue that using divergent methodological approaches would lead to a more nuanced understanding of the experiences around sexual harassment on navy ships.