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Face-to-Face Versus Online Harassment of European Women: Importance of Date and Place of Birth

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Abstract

This study seeks to improve our understanding of how sexual harassment, whether personal or using new technologies, affects young women under 30 years of age in Europe. First, the definitions of various harassment types are reviewed, and their characteristics analysed. Subsequently, we summarize recent studies on the subject that reflect how harassing behaviours are increasingly supported by new technologies. In a practical section, based on the latest data on gender violence supplied by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, we separate behaviour typical of traditional harassment, face-to-face harassment and online harassment. To improve the analysis and description of both types of harassment by age, three indicators are developed: (1) prevalence (2) intensity of sexual harassment (3) proximity to the aggressor. Particularities of online harassment include its prevalence among younger women, greater intensity and less proximity to the aggressor, although the statistics are only significant for higher prevalence and less proximity.

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Notes

  1. Undoubtedly it is difficult to specify the boundary that separates courtship or flirting behaviour from sexual harassment. In this regard, psychological approaches consider that a key factor is whether the behaviours are well received by the person to whom they are directed, and each person must define which behaviours he/she approves of and which are intolerable. However, legal—as opposed to psychological—definitions are more restricted, and are dependent on criteria that are external to the victim and are based on the particular legal framework and judicial system, among other factors (Fitzgerald et al. 1997; Cuenca-Piqueras 2014). We understand that a single act can constitute sexual harassment if it is serious (for example, sexual blackmail), but, in other cases, this behaviour could occur regularly. As Pernas and Ligero (2003: 131) state, “It is evident that any sexual manifestation may not be liked but may not be harassment,” we believe that not all sexual misconduct at work can be elevated to the category of sexual harassment; in this case it would be more about “sexism at work” or “micro-sexism”. However, there is also no consensus among the studies when specifying the standard criteria, whilst various countries also differ in terms of their legal requirements (Cuenca-Piqueras 2017: 32).

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  1. University of Almería, Almería, Spain

    Cristina Cuenca-Piqueras, Juan Sebastián Fernández-Prados & María José González-Moreno

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  1. Cristina Cuenca-Piqueras
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Cuenca-Piqueras, C., Fernández-Prados, J.S. & González-Moreno, M.J. Face-to-Face Versus Online Harassment of European Women: Importance of Date and Place of Birth. Sexuality & Culture 24, 157–173 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-019-09632-4

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