Risk and Ideology in Sexual Harassment

Abstract

One explanation of sexual harassment is that it is the result of differences in organizational or individual authority between harasser and victim. A competing conceptualization suggests that much of what is termed sexual harassment is the result of a particular definition of the situation by women possessing nontraditional or feminist gender‐role ideologies. Using a sample of university faculty, students and staff, this study examines the relationship among organizational position, demographic risk factors, and gender‐role ideology on the self‐reported incidence of sexual harassment. The findings show little relation exists between the various risk factors and the report of harassment in this sample.