The Relationships among Gender Egalitarianism, Sexual Attitudes and Sexual Harassment Myths among Korean University Students

Abstract

Objectives: This study was conducted to investigate the relationships among gender egalitarianism, sexual attitudes and sexual harassment myths among university students. Methods: A questionnaire survey was used with 165 male and 210 female university students. Descriptive statistics, independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, and the Pearson correlation coefficient with PASW 17.0 were used to analyze the data. Results: There were gender differences pertaining to gender egalitarianism and sexual harassment myths. Male students showed lower score in gender egalitarianism, were liberal on the topic of sexual pleasure and their outlook on free marriage and sexual permissiveness, and were more likely to agree on sexual harassment myths in excessive response, misunderstanding of behavior, responsibility of the victim, and an underestimation of the victim than female students. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate the existence of a gender gap regarding perceptions of egalitarianism, sexual attitudes and sexual harassment of between male and female university students. These findings suggest that the effort is needed to develop a program which allows university students to formulate sound sexual attitudes and values.