Graduate students' perceptions of contrapower sexual harassment

Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3463-5704

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Journal of Interpersonal Violence

Publication Date

9-1-2008

Volume

23

Issue

9

First Page

1258

Last Page

1276

Keywords

Academia, Graduate students, Sexual harassment, Social power, Unwanted sexual experiences

DOI

10.1177/0886260508314299

Abstract

This study compared the perceptions of 172 graduate students to traditional versus contrapower sexual harassment. Graduate students are a unique sample due to their dual role as a student and a teacher. After controlling for attitudes toward feminism and sexual harassment, participants viewed contrapower sexual harassment as less indicative of sexual harassment than traditional sexual harassment. Those with teaching experience perceived the scenarios provided as more indicative of sexual harassment than participants without teaching experience, and this effect was magnified for males. These findings suggest that people take sexual harassment less seriously in contrapower sexual harassment than in traditional sexual harassment. Furthermore, it is possible that teaching experience makes graduate students more aware of the complicated power differentials involved in classroom settings. © 2008 Sage Publications.

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