Reading between the Lines: An Environmental Scan of Writing about Third-Party Sexual Harassment in the LIS Literature and Beyond

2020 ◽  
Vol 90 (4) ◽  
pp. 412-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danielle Allard ◽  
Angela Lieu ◽  
Tami Oliphant
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Environmental Scan

scholarly journals The “Customer” is Not Always Right: Third-Party Sexual Harassment in Libraries

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Lieu ◽  
Danielle Allard ◽  
Tami Oliphant
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Environmental Scan ◽  
Library And Information Studies ◽  
Information Studies

Third party sexual harassment is often experienced by frontline library workers and is perpetuated by the very patrons they endeavour to support. This paper reports on the results of an environmental scan designed to delineate the interdisciplinary scope of third-party sexual harassment, to describe methods and methodologies used to understand this issue from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, and to inform future research in Library and Information Studies on this understudied, but critically important topic.

scholarly journals How Do People Perceive Sexual Harassment Targeting Transgender Women, Lesbians, and Straight Cisgender Women?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Mezzapelle ◽  
Anna Reiman
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Transgender Women ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Gender Harassment ◽  
Lesbian Woman ◽  
Specific Behavior ◽  
Male Colleague ◽  
And Gender

Third-party observers’ opinions affect how organizations handle sexual harassment. Prior research has focused on perceptions of sexual harassment targeting straight cisgender women. We examined how targets’ sexual orientation and gender identity impact these perceptions. In three preregistered studies, straight cisgender participants imagined a coworker confided that a male colleague had sexually harassed her. The target was a transgender woman, a lesbian woman, or a woman whose sexual orientation and gender identity were unspecified. In Study 1 (N=428), participants reported believing that sexual harassment targeting lesbians and women with unspecified identities was most likely motivated by attraction and power, whereas sexual harassment targeting transgender women was seen as most likely motivated by power and prejudice. Despite these differences in perceived motivation, in Study 2 (N=421) perceptions of appropriate consequences for the perpetrator did not vary based on the target’s identity. Study 3 (N=473) demonstrated that the specific behavior of which sexual harassment is assumed to consist differs based on the target’s identity. Whereas women with unspecified identities and lesbians were assumed to face stereotypical attraction-based harassment, transgender women were assumed to face gender harassment. Stereotypes about sexual harassment can bias third-party assumptions, invalidating experiences that do not match pervasive stereotypes.

Organizational emphasis on inclusion as a cultural value and third-party response to sexual harassment

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-66
Author(s):  
José Luis Collazo Jr ◽  
Julie A. Kmec
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Cultural Value ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Male Manager ◽  
Individual Achievement ◽  
Female Subordinate ◽  
Party Support ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeReliance on third-party judgments are common in efforts to identify and reduce workplace sexual harassment (SH). The purpose of this paper is to identify whether a workplace emphasis on inclusion as a cultural value is related to third-party labeling of and response to an exchange between a male manager and his female subordinate.Design/methodology/approachParticipants (n=308) in an online survey experiment were randomly assigned to a workplace that emphasized inclusion or one that emphasized individual achievement as a cultural value. They read a vignette describing a workplace interaction between a male manager and his female subordinate and responded to a series of questions.FindingsOrganizational emphasis on inclusion is unrelated to third-party labeling of the interaction as SH, but positively associated with labeling the female’s intention to pursue harassment charges as an overreaction, and support for the female subordinate in a claim of SH against her manager. Culture is unassociated with willingness to defend the male manager in a SH claim.Practical implicationsIdentifying how workplace culture shapes third-party reaction to harassment can help employers use third-party witnesses and cultural value statements as tools to reduce SH.Social implicationsA workplace’s cultural emphasis on inclusion is positively related to third-party support for SH victims implying the importance of workplace context in the fight against workplace SH.Originality/valueThe paper presents the first experimental analysis of how a workplace cultural emphasis on inclusion affects the third-party observers’ reactions to SH.

scholarly journals Sex-based harassment and organizational silencing: How women are led to reluctant acquiescence in academia

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (10) ◽  
pp. 1565-1594 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dulini Fernando ◽  
Ajnesh Prasad
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Everyday Functioning ◽  
Line Managers ◽  
Organizational Silence ◽  
The Social ◽  
Workplace Mistreatment ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
The Status ◽  
Public Consciousness

The #MeToo and the Time’s Up movements have raised the issue of sexual harassment encountered by women to the level of public consciousness. Together, these movements have captured not only the ubiquity of sexual harassment in the everyday functioning of the workplace, but they have also demonstrated how women are silenced about their experiences of it. Inspired by the political and the social currents emerging from these movements, and theoretically informed by ideas of discursive hegemony, rhetorical persuasion and affective practice, this article draws on a qualitative study of early- and mid-career female academics in business schools to answer the following question: How are victims who start to voice their experiences of sex-based harassment silenced within the workplace? Our findings reveal that organizational silence is the product of various third-party actors (e.g. line managers, HR, colleagues) who mobilize myriad discourses to persuade victims not to voice their discontent. We develop the concept of ‘reluctant acquiescence’ to explain the victims’ response to organizational silencing. In terms of its contributions to the extant literature, this article: (i) moves away from explanations of sex-based harassment that focus solely (or predominately) on the actions of individual perpetrators; and (ii) shows how reluctant acquiescence leads to maintaining the status quo in the organization. In highlighting features of academic work that facilitate reluctant acquiescence, we call for more contextualization of the dynamics of sex-based harassment specifically, and other forms of workplace mistreatment broadly.

Sexual Harassment in the Workplace in South Africa: The Unlimited Vicarious Liability of Employers?

2008 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-267
Author(s):  
Constantine Ntsanyu Nana
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
South African ◽  
Strict Liability ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Current Position ◽  
Vicarious Liability ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Intentional Acts ◽  
Court Of Appeal

AbstractThe South African Supreme Court of Appeal and Constitutional Court have ruled that the employer is vicariously liable for sexual violence perpetrated by his employee on a co-employee or on a third party in the workplace or in what can be considered as an extension of the workplace. This is similar to the current position in the United Kingdom. This article questions the rationale of holding employers vicariously liable for intentional acts of employees such as sexual harassment. In a bid to justify their position, these courts have adopted a sort of vicarious liability with no outer limit that is both needless and tortuous. This article submits that the law imposes a duty on employers to protect their employees and that this unwarranted development of vicarious liability could be avoided if due regard is given to the prescribed direct (and strict) liability of the employer.

Employer liability for third‐party sexual harassment

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 33-35
Author(s):  
Kevin J. Smith ◽  
Lindsay C. Stone
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Employer Liability

Third Party Perceptions of Organizations Facing Sexual Harassment Claims

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 (1) ◽  
pp. 12385
Author(s):  
Seval Gündemir ◽  
Serena Does ◽  
Margaret Shih
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Third Party
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