Taking it Like a Man! Reactions of Male Employees to Sexual Harassment in Workplaces

Abstract

This study investigates how heterosexual working males respond to sexual harassment they encounter at work in an Asian patriarchal culture that prescribes strict gender roles for men and women and supports heterosexual hegemonic masculinity. Using a qualitative research methodology, we conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 19 men who identified themselves as heterosexual. The findings indicate how the participants have responded to their experiences of sexual harassment, primarily through passivity and avoidance. In addition, on rare occasions, they have also engaged in resistance and reluctant acquiescence. These responses are largely shaped by cultural scripts and ideologies about masculinity and heterosexuality. By acting passively, the participants appear to attempt to preserve and conform to the gendered status quo, protect the perpetrators, avoid rocking the boat and prevent the tables from being turned on them. All in all, the reactions of males to sexual harassment demonstrate how masculinity is actively constructed and maintained in work settings. These findings, therefore, expand and contribute to the broader research area of sexual harassment of heterosexual men in general and, more specifically, to their reactions to sexual harassment in a cultural context that is rarely explored.