Politics Of Sexual Harassment Research Articles

Ask a Political Scientist: A Conversation with Cynthia Enloe about Gender and Global Politics

Ask a Political Scientist: A Conversation with Cynthia Enloe about Gender and Global Politics

Two Sides of the Coin: Women, Men, and the Politics of Sexual Harassment

ABSTRACT History tells us that elected leaders who are tainted by scandal often pay a political price for their behavior. In the past few years, such allegations of sexual harassment have engulfed a large number of political (as well as entertainment, business, and even academic) figures. Many were forced to resign their positions, while others chose to end their campaigns for election or reelection. While the great majority of harassment victims are women, there are a few instances where the sex roles have been reversed – and with more women running for and winning public office (and thereby gaining positions of power and authority), it is possible that we will see more such role reversals in the future. Our study uses data from an internet-based survey of registered voters to examine citizens’ attitudes about sexual harassment and the extent to which those attitudes shape their reactions when allegations of harassment are made against a fictional member of Congress. With an innovative experimental design, we will examine whether reactions vary with (a) either the target’s or the voter’s gender or (b) the former’s response to the allegations of sexual misconduct made against him/her (denial, apology, counterframe).

Eye of the Beholder: Partisanship, Identity, and the Politics of Sexual Harassment

Two current members of the U.S. Supreme Court took their seats despite allegations of sexual harassment (Clarence Thomas) and sexual assault (Brett Kavanaugh) leveled against them during their confirmation hearings. In each instance, the Senate vote was close and split mainly along party lines: Republicans for and Democrats against. Polls showed that a similar division existed among party supporters in the electorate. There are, however, differences among rank-and-file partisans that help shape their views on the issues raised by these two controversial appointments to the nation’s highest court. Using data from a national survey of registered voters, we examine the factors associated with citizens’ attitudes about the role of women in politics, the extent to which sexism is a problem in society, the recent avalanche of sexual harassment charges made against elected officials and other political (as well as entertainment, business, and academic) figures, and the #MeToo movement. We are particularly interested in whether a strong sense of partisan identity adds significantly to our understanding of people’s attitudes on these matters. In addition, our experimental evidence allows us to determine whether shared partisanship overrides other factors when an elected official from one’s own party is accused of sexual misbehavior.

Book Review: The Politics of Sexual Harassment: A Comparative Study of the United States, the European Union, and Germany. By Kathrin S. Zippel. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006, 255 pp., $34.99 (paper)

Book Review: The Politics of Sexual Harassment: A Comparative Study of the United States, the European Union, and Germany. By Kathrin S. Zippel. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006, 255 pp., $34.99 (paper)

Kathrin S. Zippel The Politics of Sexual Harassment: A Comparative Study of the United States, the European Union, and Germany

Kathrin S. Zippel The Politics of Sexual Harassment: A Comparative Study of the United States, the European Union, and Germany

The Politics of Sexual Harassment: A Comparative Study of the United States, the European Union, and Germany. By Kathrin S. Zippel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. xviii, 255 pp. Hardcover $80.00; paper $34.99.

The Politics of Sexual Harassment: A Comparative Study of the United States, the European Union, and Germany. By Kathrin S. Zippel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. xviii, 255 pp. Hardcover 34.99. - Volume 3 Issue 3

Kathrin S. Zippel: The politics of sexual harassment. A comparative study of the United States, the European Union, and Germany

Kathrin S. Zippel: The politics of sexual harassment. A comparative study of the United States, the European Union, and Germany

The Politics of Sexual Harassment: A Comparative Study of the United States, the European Union, and Germany

The Politics of Sexual Harassment: A Comparative Study of the United States, the European Union, and Germany

Sexual Harassment: The Global and the Local

Abigail Saguy’s What Is Sexual Harassment and Kathrin Zippel’s The Politics of Sexual Harassment are both concerned with how global social movements are refracted through national cultural and legal systems. Both find that new norms spread across countries, in this case originating in the United States and then spreading through feminists to Europe. But both find diffusion models wanting. The wider importance of these studies is hard to overestimate. In recent decades sociologists, political scientists, and economists have studied the diffusion of cultural and legal norms around the world: democratization, women’s rights, labor rights, cultural, and racial religious rights—a whole host of things going by the name of political liberalization. But they have also studied privatization, trade liberalization, antitrust, “good” corporate governance, stock markets, and central bank independence—a whole host of things going by the name of economic liberalization. Sexual harassment is an instance of a wider trend that has swept the globe. And this period of globalization is not the first. Before this, there was colonization, decolonization, mercantilism, the gold standard, Keynesianism, and emancipation. The many studies of this new wave show the spread of nominally similar policies, but they do not show what happens within countries. Many

The Politics of Sexual Harassment: A Comparative Study of the United States, the European Union, and Germany

The Politics of Sexual Harassment: A Comparative Study of the United States, the European Union, and Germany. By Kathrin S. Zippel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 274p. $80.00 cloth, $34.99 paper. Why was Germany so much slower than the United States to outlaw sexual harassment? What role have feminist organizations, academics, women in political parties, and femocrats (governmental equality officers) played in generating this policy change? How did the European Union act to require member states to legislate given that most member states were opposed? Does it matter that German policymakers have framed the problem largely as a gender-neutral violation of dignity, rather than as an individual right not to be discriminated against on the basis of sex? Is it better to rely on individual litigants to enforce the law or work through collective bargaining agreements and labor councils? And what are the implications of the findings of sexual harassment policy for the future of this issue, feminist policy change, and the policy process more generally? Kathrin Zippel answers these questions and more in her well-researched, comprehensive, and clearly written book.

The Politics of Sexual Harassment: A Comparative Study of the United States, the European Union, and Germany by Kathrin S. Zippel

The Politics of Sexual Harassment: A Comparative Study of the United States, the European Union, and Germany by Kathrin S. Zippel