Cross-Cultural Communication
Causation and Demographics of Sexual Harassment in Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria
Abstract
Sexual harassment has become a synonym for describing Obafemi Awolowo University in light of frequent occurrence of the problem in most recent time. This study investigated the causes of sexual harassment and the demography of harassers and their victims. The study went further to investigate the attitude of respondents (female undergraduate students) to efforts put in place by the university authority to rein in on sexual harassers. The study employed a quantitative research method and the instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire. The study identified multiple factors that facilitate sexual harassment. Female students in their final year are most prone to sexual harassment. Female students who lust for undeserving marks constitute another category most vulnerable to sexual harassment. Indecent dressing among female students was identified as a factor that exposes them to sexual harassment. In spite of zero tolerance of the university management to sexual harassment, respondents did not have confidence in measures put in place by the authorities to rein on sexual harassment. Respondents argued that sexual harassment is underreported for sundry reasons relating to policy, procedures, institutional measures and stereotypes. They suggest that extant policies orchestrated at containing sexual harassment are not inclusive of stakeholders in the university; and that the approach of the university to address the problem seems more impulsive than preventive. Conclusively, there is no consensus on the definition of the problem or how best to respond to it.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Barak, A., Pitterman, Y., & Yitzhaki, R. (1995). An empirical test of the role of power differential in originating sexual harassment. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 17(4), 479-517.
Browne, K. R. (1997). An evolutionary perspective on sexual harassment: Seeking roots in biology rather than ideology. Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues, 8, 5-77.
Cleveland, J. N., & Kerst, M. E. (1993). Sexual harassment and perceptions of power: An under-articulated relationship. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 42, 49-67.
Crowell, N. A., & Burgess, A. W. (1996). Understanding violence against women. National Research Council (U.S.) Washington, National Academy Press
Dekker, I., & Barling, J. (1998). Personal and organizational predictors of workplace sexual harassment of women by men. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 3, 7-18
European Commission (1998). Sexual harassment in the workplace in the European Union. European Commission: Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (European Commission). https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/9c49e8af-2350-46dc-9f4b-cc2571581072
Farley, L. (1978). Sexual shakedown: The sexual harassment of women on the job. New York: McGraw-Hill
Fitzgerald, L. F., & Weitzman, L. M. (1990). Men who harass: Speculation and data. In M. A. Paludi (Ed.), Ivory power: Sexual harassment on campus (pp. 125-141). Albany: State University of New York.
Gruber, J. E. (1992). A typology of personal and environmental sexual harassment: Research and policy implications for the 1990s. Sex Roles, 26, 447-464.
Gruber, J. E., & Bjorn, L. (1986). Women’s responses to sexual harassment: An analysis of sociocultural, organizational and personal resource models. Social Science Quarterly, 67, 814-826
Gutek, B. A. (1985). Sex and the workplace: Impact of sexual behavior and harassment on women, men and organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Gutek, B. A., & Done, R. S. (2001). Sexual harassment. In R. K. Unger (Ed.), Handbook of the psychology of women and gender (vol. 25, pp. 367-387). Chichester: John Willey & Sons Inc.
Gutek, B. A., & Morasch, B. (1982). Sex ratios, sex-role spillover and sexual harassment of women at work. Journal of Social Issues, 38(4), 55-74
Koss, M. (1992). The underdetection of rape: Methodological choices, influence incidences estimates. Journal of Social Issues, 48, 61-76.
MacKinnon, C. A. (1979). Sexual harassment of working women: A case of sex discrimination. Yale University Press.
Malovich, N. J., & Stake, J. E. (1990). Sexual harassment on campus: Individual differences in attitudes and beliefs. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 14(1), 63-82.
Martin, Patricia Yancey. (2001). “Mobilizing Masculinities”: Women’s experiences of men at work. Organization, 8, 587-61
Matchen, J., & DeSouza, E. (2000). The sexual harassment of faculty members by students. Sex Roles, 42(3-4), 295-306
McGolgan, A. (2004, June). Report on sexual harassment in the workplace in EU Member States, The Irish Presidency of the European Union in association with Farrell Grant Sparks Consulting. Dublin: Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.
Ménard, K. S., Hall, G. C. N., Phung, A. H., Ghebrial, M. F. E., & Martin, L. (2003). Gender differences in sexual harassment and coercion in college students: Developmental, individual and situational determinants. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 18(10), 1222-1239
Niebuhr, R. E., & Boyles, W. R. (1991). Sexual harassment of military personnel: An examination of power differentials. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 15, 445-457
Numhauser-Henning, A. & Laulom, S. (2012). Harassment related to Sex and Sexual Harassment Law in 33 European Countries. European Network of Legal Experts in the Field of Gender Equality: Discrimination versus Dignity. European Union.
O’Donohue, W., Downs, K., & Yeater, E. A. (1998). Sexual harassment: A review of the literature. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 3(2), 111-128
O’Hare, E., & O’Donohue, W. (1998). Sexual harassment: Identifying risk factors. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 27(6), 561-579.
Pina, A., Gannon, T. A., & Saunder, B. (2009). An overview of sexual harassment: Perpetrator, theory, and treatment issues. Aggression and Violent Behaviour, 14, 126-1138.
Pryor, J. B. (1987). Sexual harassment proclivities in men. Sex Roles, 17, 269-290.
Pryor, J. B. (1995). The phenomenology of sexual harassment: Why does sexual behavior bother people in the workplace? Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 47, 160-168.
Sbraga, T. P., & O’Donohue, W. (2000). Sexual harassment. Annual Review of Sex Research, XI. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Sexual-Harassment-Sbraga-O’donohue/9c69281f176468c0d66a7e1f53e213491eb2.
Skaine, R. (1996). Power and gender: Issues in sexual dominance and harassment. Mc Farland Publishing ISBN 0786402083, 9780786402083.
Stockdale, M. S. (1993). The role of sexual misperceptions of women’s friendliness in an emerging theory of sexual harassment. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 42, 84-101.
Tangri, S. S., Burt, M. R., & Johnson, L. B. (1982). Sexual harassment at work: Three explanatory models. Journal of Social Issues, 38, 33-54
Tangri, S., & Hayes, S. (1997). Theories of sexual harassment. In W. O’Donohue (Ed.), Sexual harassment: Theory, research, and treatment (pp. 112-128). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Thomas, A. M., & Kitzinger, C. (1997). Sexual harassment. Contemporary feminist perspectives. Buckingham: Open University Press.
UNFPA, United Nations Population Front (2007). Five underreported stories kick off 16 days of activism against gender-based violence campaign. https://www.unfpa.org/press/five-underreported-stories-kick-16-days-activism-against-gender-based-violence-campaign-0.
Vaux, A. (1993). Paradigmatic assumptions in sexual harassment research: Being guided without being misled. Sexual harassment in the workplace [Special issue]. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 42, 116-135.
Watts, C., & Zimmerman, C. (2002). Violence against women: Global scope and magnitude. The Lancet, 359(9313), 1232-1237.
Whaley, G. L., & Tucker, S. H. (1998). A theoretical integration of sexual harassment models. Equal Opportunities International, 17(1), 21-29.
Willness, C., Steel, P., & Lee, K. (2007). A meta-analysis of the antecedents and consequences of workplace sexual harassment. Personnel Psychology, 60, 127-162.
World Bank Group (2018). A guidance note for preventing, reporting and responding to sexual assaults and sexual harassment in tertiary education institutions. The World Bank Group IBRD*IDA https://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/397161582585064307/guidancenote-final.pdf.
World Health Organization (WHO 2005). Multi-country study on women’s health and domestic violence against women: Initial results on prevalence, health outcomes and women’s responses /authors: Claudia Garcia-Moreno (et al.). World Health Organization. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/43309.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/12682
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2022 Author(s)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Share us to: 
Reminder
- How to do online submission to another Journal?
- If you have already registered in Journal A, then how can you submit another article to Journal B? It takes two steps to make it happen:
1. Register yourself in Journal B as an Author
- Find the journal you want to submit to in CATEGORIES, click on “VIEW JOURNAL”, “Online Submissions”, “GO TO LOGIN” and “Edit My Profile”. Check “Author” on the “Edit Profile” page, then “Save”.
2. Submission
Online Submission: http://cscanada.org/index.php/ccc/submission/wizard
- Go to “User Home”, and click on “Author” under the name of Journal B. You may start a New Submission by clicking on “CLICK HERE”.
- We only use four mailboxes as follows to deal with issues about paper acceptance, payment and submission of electronic versions of our journals to databases: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
Articles published in Cross-Cultural Communication are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY).
CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION Editorial Office
Address: 1055 Rue Lucien-L'Allier, Unit #772, Montreal, QC H3G 3C4, Canada.
Telephone: 1-514-558 6138
Website: Http://www.cscanada.net; Http://www.cscanada.org
E-mail:[email protected]; [email protected]
Copyright © Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture 
