Abstract
The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of sex of offender and type of behavior on faculty perceptions of contrapower sexual harassment. Probability samples of predominately white male and female faculty at two universities in the Midwest were asked to read and make judgments about an incident that might constitute sexual harassment of a faculty member by an opposite-sex student. The effects of offender/student sex, type of harassing behavior, and subject sex were assessed. Some of the results included, as hypothesized, that when the student offender was male, subjects were more likely to: (1) view the incident as harassment, (2) believe the faculty member would be upset, and (3) see the student as responsible, compared to when the student offender was female. Overall, obscene phone calls and explicit verbal-physical harassment were viewed more negatively than written sexual comments and implicit verbal-physical harassment. Female faculty subjects also viewed the incidents as more negative or problematic on several measures than did male faculty.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adams, J. W., Kollke, H. L. & Padgill, J. S. (1983, November). Sexual harassment of university students.Journal of College Personnel, 484–491.
Baker, D. D., Terpstra, D. E., & Larntz, K. (1990). The influence of individual characteristics and severity of harassing behavior on reactions to sexual harassment.Sex Roles, 22, 305–325.
Benson, D. J., & Thomson, G. E. (1982). Sexual harassment on a university campus: The confluence of authority relations, sexual interest and gender stratification.Social Problems, 29, 236–251.
Benson, K. (1984). Comment on Crocker’s ‘an analysis of university definitions of sexual harassment.’Signs, 9, 516–519.
Carroll, L., & Ellis, K. L. (1989). Faculty attitudes toward sexual harassment: Survey results, survey process.Initiatives, 52, 35–41.
Crocker, P. L. (1983). An analysis of university definitions of sexual harassment.Signs, 8, 696–707.
Fitzgerald, L. F., Weitzman, L. M., Gold, Y., & Ormerod, M. (1988). Academic harassment: Sex and denial in scholarly garb.Psychology of Women Quarterly, 12, 329–340.
Gagnon, J. (1990). The explicit and implicit use of the scripting perspective in sex research. In J. Bancroft (Ed.),Annual review of sex research. Society for the Scientific Study of Sex.
Grauerholz, E. (1989). Sexual harassment of women professors by students: Exploring the dynamics of power, authority, and gender in a university setting.Sex Roles, 21, 789–801.
Grauerholz, E. (1991).Sexual harassment in the academy: The experience of faculty women. Unpublished manuscript.
Heiss, J. (1981). Social roles. In M. Rosenberg & R. H. Turner (Eds.),Social Psychology: Sociological Perspectives. Basic Books: New York.
Mazer, D. B., & Percival, E. F. (1989). Students’ experiences of sexual harassment at a small university.Sex Roles, 20, 1–22.
McKinney, K. (1990a). Sexual harassment of university faculty by colleagues and students.Sex Roles, 23, 421–43.
McKinney, K. (1990b). Attitudes toward sexual harassment and perceptions of blame: Views of male and female graduate students.Free Inquiry into Creative Sociology, 18, 191–196.
McKinney, K., & Crittenden, K. (1992). Contrapower sexual harassment: The offenders’ viewpoint.Free Inquiry into Creatire Sociology, 20, 3–20.
McKinney, K., & Maroules, N. (1991). Sexual Harassment. In E. Grauerholz & M. Koralewski (Eds.)Sexual coercion. Lexington, MA: Lexington Press.
McKinney, K., Olson, C., & Satterfield, A. (1988). Graduate students’ experiences with and responses to sexual harassment.Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 3, 319–325.
Pryor, J. (1985). The lay person’s understanding of sexual harassment.Sex Roles, 13, 272–286.
Pryor, J., & Day, J. (1988). Interpretations of sexual harassment: An attributional analysis.Sex Roles, 18, 405–417.
Reilly, T., Carpenter, S., Dull, V., & Bartlett, K. (1982). The factorial survey: An approach to defining sexual harassment on campus.Journal of Social Issues, 38, 99–110.
Rossi, P. H., & Weber-Burdin, E. (1983). Sexual harassment on the campus.Social Science Research, 12, 131–158.
Rubin, L. J., & Borgers, S. B. (1990). Sexual harassment in the universities during the 1980s.Sex Roles, 23, 397–411.
Schneider, B. E. (1987). Graduate women, sexual harassment and university policy.Journal of Higher Education, 38, 46–65.
Valentine-French, S., & Rudtke, H. L. (1989). Attributions of responsibility for an incident of sexual harassment in a university setting.Sex Roles, 21, 545–555.
Weber-Burdin, E., & Rossi, P. H. (1982). Defining sexual harassment on campus: A replication and extension.Journal of Social Issues, 38, 111–120.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
The author would like to thank James Sikora for his assistance in collecting the data, and Susan Sprecher and Elizabeth Grauerholz for their comments on earlier versions of this paper. This research was funded by a University Research Grant from the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs at Illinois State University.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
McKinney, K. Contrapower sexual harassment: The effects of student sex and type of behavior on faculty perceptions. Sex Roles 27, 627–643 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03187138
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03187138