NCJ Number
181291
Journal
Violence Against Women Volume: 6 Issue: 2 Dated: February 2000 Pages: 118-141
Date Published
February 2000
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This article examines the multidimensional nature of sexual harassment.
Abstract
Using data from sexual harassment complaints lodged with the Canadian Human Rights Commission between 1978 and 1993, the article attempts to address the types of sexual harassment behaviors experienced by women complainants and whether those experiences of sexual harassment were characterized by isolated or multidimensional incidents. Women complainants experienced a range of behaviors, with quid pro quo harassment occurring in only 14 percent of the complaints. Complaints had a multidimensional nature and could be characterized as either containing poisoned environment harassment or quid pro quo sexual behaviors. It was not the experience of one behavior alone but the ways in which the behaviors occurred together that constituted sexual harassment for many women complainants. The article suggests that researchers need to develop multidimensional measures of harassment and move away from discussions of harassment as discrete incidents. Tables, appendix, notes, references