REPORTED INCIDENCE RATES OF WORK‐RELATED SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN THE UNITED STATES: USING META‐ANALYSIS TO EXPLAIN REPORTED RATE DISPARITIES

TLDR

This study presents a meta‑analytic review of the incidence of sexual harassment in the U.S. The authors estimated the impact of three moderator variables—survey type, sampling technique, and work‑environment type—on reported incidence rates by aggregating data from the literature. The meta‑analysis found that direct questioning and probability sampling lower reported incidence rates, that larger power differentials increase prevalence, and that among 86,000 respondents from 55 probability samples, 58 % of women reported potentially harassing behaviors and 24 % reported sexual harassment at work.

Abstract

This study presents a meta‐analytic review of the incidence of sexual harassment in the U.S. The impact of 3 main moderator variables (type of survey used, sampling technique, and the type of work environment in which the study was conducted) on the reported incidence rate was estimated by cumulating incidence rates reported in the literature. Results show that directly querying the respondents about whether or not they experienced sexual harassment (vs. using questionnaires that listed behaviors believed to constitute sexual harassment), and employing probability‐sampling techniques (vs. convenience sampling), led to substantially lower estimates of sexual harassment incidence. In addition, the results suggest that sexual harassment is more prevalent in organizations characterized by relatively large power differentials between organizational levels. Based on more than 86,000 respondents from 55 probability samples, on average, 58% of women report having experienced potentially harassing behaviors and 24% report having experienced sexual harassment at work.