The perception of sexual harassment at university / La percepción del acoso sexual en el ámbito universitario

Abstract

The subjective perception of harassment victims is one of the key criteria when defining what sexual harassment is. In this context, the aim of this paper is to analyse the differences between men and women’s judgments of what behaviours constitute sexual harassment and how they are classified at university. To accomplish this, we administered a 38-item questionnaire to a sample of 1,693 people (1,521 students and 172 members of teaching staff, administration and services) at a Spanish university. The results indicate that there is a distinction associated with both the severity of the behaviours perceived and classified as sexual harassment (more severe and milder) and their content (coercion or sexual blackmail vs. environmental harassment). Within this perception, there is a clear combined effect of the variables of gender and position within the university community such that women, particularly female university staff members, classified more behaviours as mild sexual harassment.