Abstract
Although the problem of sexual harassment can be approached from a variety of perspectives, the present research focused on the role played by individuals’ perceptions, specifically those that may differ between men and women. We examined whether perceived sexual harassment would vary depending on observers’ gender, on gender of the harasser and of the victim, and on whether and what type of sexual harassment definition was provided to observers. In doing so, we attempted to update and clarify inconsistent results from prior studies. Results from 413 young adult U.S. MTurk participants responding to an online survey revealed fairly large effects for participants’ gender, such that women perceived a wider range of situations as sexual harassment than did men. In addition, the dyad of a man harassing a woman was construed as more definitely involving sexual harassment than other dyads. Surprisingly, these gender differences were smaller for situations judged as comprising sexual harassment to a lesser extent (i.e., those involving derogatory attitudes and nonsexual physical contact). Results are discussed in relation to prior findings and their legal implications, especially as they relate to a psychological assumption of the so-called “reasonable woman” standard used in U.S. courts, that women perceive sexual harassment to a greater degree than men. The results are also relevant for those wishing to curtail harassment within organizations and for those counseling victims of sexual harassment.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American Psychological Association. (1993). In the Supreme Court of the United States: Teresa Harris v. Forklift Systems, Inc.: Brief for amicus curiae American Psychological Association in support of neither party. Washington, DC.
Baumeister, R. F. (1998). The self. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (4th ed., pp. 680–740). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Berdahl, J. L., Magley, V. J., & Waldo, C. R. (1996). The sexual harassment of men?: Exploring the concept with theory and data. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 20(4), 527–547. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.1996.tb00320.x.
Bitton, M. S., & Shaul, D. B. (2013). Perceptions and attitudes to sexual harassment: An examination of sex differences and the sex composition of the harasser-target dyad. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 43(10), 2136–2145. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12166.
Blumenthal, J. A. (1998). The reasonable woman standard: A meta-analytic review of gender differences in perceptions of sexual harassment. Law and Human Behavior, 22(1), 33–57. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1025724721559.
Brehm, J. W. (1966). A theory of psychological reactance. New York: Academic Press.
Burt, D. L., & DeMello, L. R. (2002). Attributions of rape blame as a function of victim gender and sexuality, and perceived similarity to the victim. Journal of Homosexuality, 43, 39–57. https://doi.org/10.1300/J082v43n02_03.
Carlucci, M. E., & Golom, F. D. (2016). Juror perceptions of female-female sexual harassment: Do sexual orientation and type of harassment matter? Journal of Aggression. Conflict and Peace Research, 8(4), 238–246.https://doi.org/10.1108/jacpr-01-2016-0210.
Chatterjee, R. (2018). A new survey finds 81% of women have experienced sexual harassment. National Public Radio. Retrieved on October 18, 2018 from https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/21/587671849/a-new-survey-finds-eighty-percent-of-women-have-experienced-sexual-harassment.
Cortina, L. M., & Berdahl, J. L. (2008). Sexual harassment in organizations: A decade of research in review. In J. Barling & C. L. Cooper (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of organizational behavior (pp. 469–497). Thousand Oaks: Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781849200448.n26.
Ellison v Brady, 924 F.2d 872, 879 (9th Cir. 1991).
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (1980). Guidelines on discrimination because of sex (Sect. 1604. 11). Federal Register, 45(74), 676–74,677.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (2016). Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace. Retrieved from: https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/task_force/harassment/.
Fitzgerald, L. F., Gelfand, M. J., & Drasgow, F. (1995). Measuring sexual harassment: Theoretical and psychometric advances. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 17, 425–445. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15324834.
Fitzgerald, L. F., Drasgow, F., Hulin, C. L., Gelfand, M. J., & Magley, V. J. (1997). Antecedents and consequences of sexual harassment in organizations: a test of an integrated model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82(4), 578–589. https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-9010.82.4.578.
Foote, W. E., & Goodman-Delahunty, J. (2005). Evaluating sexual harassment: Psychological, social, and legal considerations in forensic examinations. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/10827-000.
Garcia v. Elf Atochem North America, 28 F.3d 446 (5th Cir. 1994), 18. (1994).
Harris v. Forklift Systems, Inc., 510 U.S. 17 (1993).
Katz, R. C., Hannon, R., & Whitten, L. (1996). Effects of gender and situation on the perception of sexual harassment. Sex Roles, 34(1–2), 35–42. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01544794.
Levy, I., & Adam, K. M. (2018). Online commenting about a victim of female-on-male rape: The case of Shia LaBeouf’s sexual victimization. Sex Roles, 79(9–10), 578–593. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-018-0893-9.
MacKinnon, C. (1979). The sexual harassment of working women: A case of sex discrimination (No. 19). New Haven: Yale University Press.
Marks, M. A., & Nelson, E. S. (1993). Sexual harassment on campus: Effects of professor gender on perception of sexually harassing behaviors. Sex Roles, 28(3–4), 207–217. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00299281.
Quick, J. C., & McFadyen, M. A. (2017). Sexual harassment: Have we made any progress? Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 22(3), 286–298. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000054.
Rotundo, M., Nguyen, D., & Sackett, P. R. (2001). A meta-analytic review of gender differences in perceptions of sexual harassment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(5), 914–922. https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-9010.86.5.914.
Runtz, M. G., & O’Donnell, C. W. (2003). Students’ perceptions of sexual harassment: Is it harassment only if the offender is a man and the victim is a woman? Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33(5), 963–982. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2003.tb01934.x.
Sojo, V. E., Wood, R. E., & Genat, A. E. (2016). Harmful workplace experiences and women’s occupational well-being: A meta-analysis. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 40(1), 10–40. https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684315599346.
Tinkler, J. E., Li, Y. E., & Mollborn, S. (2007). Can legal interventions change beliefs? The effect of exposure to sexual harassment policy on men’s gender beliefs. Social Psychology Quarterly, 70(4), 480–494. https://doi.org/10.1177/019027250707000413.
U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission. (2018). Charges alleging sex-based harassment (charges filed with EEOC). Retrieved on July 5, 2018 from https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/statistics/enforcement/sexual_harassment_new.cfm
U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board. (1981). Sexual harassment in the federal workplace: Is it a problem? Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board. (1995). Sexual harassment in the federal workplace: Trends, progress, and continuing challenges. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
White, B. H., & Robinson Kurpius, S. E. (2002). Effects of victim sex and sexual orientation on perceptions of rape. Sex Roles, 46, 191–200. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1019617920155.
Williams, C. L. (2018). Sexual Harassment in organizations: A critique of current research and policy. In R. Refinetti (Ed.), Sexual Harassment and Sexual Consent (pp. 20–43). New York: Routledge.
Zacharek, S., Dockterman, E., & Edwards, H.S. (2017, December). The silence breakers. Time. Retrieved from https://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2017-silence-breakers/.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
I have read and am in compliance with the guidelines of the 6th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, including the provisions about duplicate publications. No data from this research are being submitted or published elsewhere as a separate manuscript.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
ESM 1
(DOCX 35 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rothgerber, H., Kaufling, K., Incorvati, C. et al. Is a Reasonable Woman Different from a Reasonable Person? Gender Differences in Perceived Sexual Harassment. Sex Roles 84, 208–220 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-020-01156-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-020-01156-8