The issue of sexual harassment is of serious concern; even decades ago it was estimated that over half of all women have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace and a third of all college women have been sexually harassed. In spite the importance of this topic, until recently, there has been silence on the issue of sexual harassment occurring in institutions of higher education throughout the world.
Sexual Harassment is a manifestation of power relations. Women are much more likely to be victims of sexual harassment because they, more often than men, lack power, are in more vulnerable and insecure positions, and often lack self connfidence. In both obvious and subtle ways, sexual harassment is destructive to individual students, staff, and the academic community as a whole. When, through fear of reprisal, a student or staff member submits, or is pressured to submit to unwanted sexual attention, the academic institution’s ability to carry out its mission is undermined.
The effects of sexual harassment can be varied and can have impact on personal, work and academic life. It includes:
- Psychological : Depression, anxiety, shock, denial, anger, insecurity, embarrassment, shame, guilt, low self-esteen
- Physiological : Headaches, lethargy, gastrointestinal distress, dermatological reactions, weight fluctuations, sleep disturbances, phobias, panic reactions, sexual problems
- Career-Related : Decreased job satisfaction, drop in work performance due to stress, absenteeism, withdrawal from work, change in career goals
Research done the University of Zambia (UNZA) found that sexual harassment is a reality at the institution and the conduct of sexual harassment includes physical, visual and verbal actions. It typically involves a person in a position of power as the initiator, but may also occur in an academic environment in number of ways. At UNZA, sexual harassment took to the following dynamics:
- Student by student
- Staff member by staff member
- Staff member by student
- Student by staff member
Like most Universities around the world, UNZA has also responded to the issue of sexual harassment by having a policy in place which clearly stipulates the grievance and disciplinary procedures. Despite this, there has only been a handful of cases reported and resolved over the decade since the policy was introduced. Through the support of the Global Campus Violence Prevention initiative of the University of California Global Health Institute, we explored more into this issue. We found that among students, many were not aware of the existence of a sexual harassment policy and even those who knew about it, had not seen it or did not know from where to access it. The majority of the UNZA community lacked confidence in the reporting structure and did not believe any action would be taken even if they reported any incidence of sexual harassment. This brought us to a major turning point of shifting gears to improve awareness about the sexual harassment policy and reporting structures; and engaging with the UNZA community to identify the best possible office to deal with reports of sexual harassment.
Through our recent work, we recognized that it is not enough to solely have a policy in existence. What is needed is a user friendly mechanism of implementing it and the continuous monitoring and evaluation of the implementation. In sensitive issues such as sexual harassment, it is central to have some flexibility built into the implementation. It is important to make the complainant feel safe and protected and this may mean a flexible reporting structure as well.
The problem of sexual harassment in academia is a reality and should be dealt with boldly. This problem should not be underestimated, it subverts the mission of the University and offends the integrity of the academic community.