Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review 2011, 47(2): 361-388 | DOI: 10.13060/00380288.2011.47.2.06

Sexual Harassment at Universities: Definition, Methodology, Research Results

Irena Smetáčková, Petr Pavlík
Pedagogická fakulta Univerzity Karlovy, Praha
Fakulta humanitních studií Univerzity Karlovy, Praha

In this article the authors present the main results from one of two existing Czech studies on sexual harassment at Czech universities. The research was carried out in 2008-2009 on a sample of 832 students at 11 public universities and colleges. The results indicate that 78% of students have personally experienced teacher behaviours that can be characterised as sexual harassment. However, only 3% of them said explicitly that they had been sexually harassed. One of the reasons for this contradiction is the relatively low awareness about sexual harassment in Czech society. Even in academic debates, a narrow definition of sexual harassment is often preferred and the gender dimension of the problem is not considered. With this in mind, the authors discuss expanding the concept of 'sexual harassment' to include a gender perspective. They demonstrate the use of this concept in an academic setting and the outline main methodological challenges faced by the relevant research. Against this backdrop, they identify two contentious aspects of the conceptualisation of sexual harassment: (1) the relationship between 'objective' and 'subjective' definitions and (2) the relationship between expert and personal definitions (scientific and lay's definitions).

Keywords: sexual harassment, gender harassment, universities, objective and subjective definition, expert and personal definition.

Published: April 1, 2011Show citation

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Smetáčková, I., & Pavlík, P. (2011). Sexual Harassment at Universities: Definition, Methodology, Research Results. Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review, 47(2), 361-388. doi: 10.13060/00380288.2011.47.2.06.
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