This article uses an original dataset of federal Title IX complaints to assess whether and how mobilization of the law to confront sexual harassment has diffused throughout four-year (and above) ...nonprofit colleges and universities. Event history analyses show that complaints spread more rapidly among schools of similar selectivity as well as among institutions linked by a new indicator for social proximity—school Twitter ties—that encompasses multiple forms of social proximity simultaneously. The same diffusion patterns do not emerge for other types of sex discrimination complaints filed under Title IX, indicating that networks channel the capacity to mobilize law differently across different types of claims. The findings illuminate a dramatic transformation in the deployment of Title IX that has reshaped how colleges and universities govern gender relations.
Summary
Motivation
Paid work is key for women's empowerment, but many women work in precarious employment where they experience workplace sexual harassment. Articles in this special section explore ...how social norms and job informality influence women's perceptions about—and their voice and agency to counter—workplace sexual harassment.
Purpose
This introductory article highlights the academic and policy contribution of the special section by establishing how the articles collectively explore the relationship between social norms, job informality, and women's agency with respect to workplace sexual harassment, and the kinds of policies that may strengthen women's agency.
Methods and approach
Research in two countries explored how gender norms and informality in work arrangements influence young women's voice and agency in response to sexual harassment at work. This article introduces four articles based on the research findings and presents the themes that are explored in case studies with domestic workers and workers in agro‐processing factories in Bangladesh and Uganda.
Findings
The findings show that gender norms regarding sexuality and notions of family honour and shame constrain young women's ability to voice incidents of sexual harassment and their agency in seeking support from family and other actors; normalize male aggression; and sustain the perpetrators' impunity. These norms, alongside class and power hierarchies, affect the responses of the actors and institutions both within and outside their workplace. Given the precarious nature of their work, most workers avoid lodging formal complaints and rely on informal mechanisms for self‐protection.
Policy implications
The policy implications of the research include the importance of developing common language that will allow women to speak openly about their experiences; increasing access to and confidence in formal complaints mechanisms; developing young women's political capacities to challenge harassment; and address social and gender norms that constrain women and normalize harassment.
Sexual harassment on college campuses is a frequent occurrence and serious public health concern. Victims of sexual harassment are at risk for many possible negative health consequences. In addition, ...certain psychological distress symptoms and/or alcohol use may put individuals at increased risk of being victims of sexual harassment. Data from more than 2,000 college students in the Midwestern United States were used to examine reciprocal causal effects of the relations between (a) experiencing sexual harassment and alcohol use and (b) experiencing sexual harassment and psychological distress symptoms, specifically depression and anger/hostility. Analyses were conducted separately for sexual harassment which occurs at school and which occurs in college students' workplaces, and also separately for men and women. Results of cross-lagged panel models showed that there were reciprocal causal effects between sexual harassment and alcohol problems, depression, and anger. Discussion focuses on the overall patterns of results as well as the nuances within these findings.
Expert witnesses Allum, Robin
Bulletin of the Royal College of Surgeons of England,
03/2022, Letnik:
104, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Odprti dostop
Sir, I have serious concerns regarding the suitability of expert witnesses in clinical negligence. There is always a drive to settle these cases for a small amount without admission of liability as ...when a case gets as far as court, the result is at best unpredictable, and often depends on the ability of the respective barristers and/or the sympathy of the judge. Willness CR, Steel P, Lee K. A meta-analysis of the antecedents and consequences of workplace sexual harassment.
The Bulletin has ignited the conversation around sexual assault in surgery, resulting in an avalanche of personal testimonies and calls for action to change surgical culture. Victoria Pegna et al ...detail the steps they have planned to tackle the problem.
Abstract
This article presents the novel conceptualization of the unknowing victim (UV) and addresses the ethical ramifications of this status. Criminology and victimology have primarily focused on ...knowing victims, but certain crimes occur without the victim’s detection (e.g. sexual assault of an unconscious victim). There is a critical liminal dimension to UV’s status: they are on the threshold between unawareness and conscious awareness of their status as victims of crime and are thus situated on the brink of experiencing harm through their own discovery, or someone else’s disclosure, of the crime committed against them. We call for the recognition of UVs and the temporalities of their embodied experiences, and argue that there is an ethical imperative to prioritize their lived experience.
Previous research, mainly in the United States, has identified several barriers to acting as a bystander in sexual harassment at university campuses. Despite the high frequency of harassment in Latin ...America, there is a dearth of studies investigating barriers to bystander behaviour in this context. In this pilot study, we report findings exploring harassment and bystander behaviour in university staff and students in Ecuador, a Latin American country characterised by masculine social norms and high levels of gender-based harassment. In an on-line survey, 129 staff and students from universities in different regions of Ecuador answered questions about perceptions of seriousness of harassment, rape myth acceptance, actual incidences of being a perpetrator, victim, or a bystander, and the likelihood and difficulties of bystander action. Women and those who scored higher in rape myth acceptance reported more intervention difficulties. In addition, women and those who had previously perpetrated harassment rated their likelihood of intervening lower. Finally, perceptions of harassment as a serious problem in campuses related to a higher likelihood of intervening as a bystander. We discuss the results in terms of practical applications in devising culturally appropriate bystander intervention workshops.
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