A study of sexual harassment and coping behavior

Pages: 344-349
Aparna Pathak (Department of Psychology, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur, U.P.)

This article attempts to explore whether sexual harassment and unwanted sexual attention from strangers in public is a frequent experience for women. The Supreme Court’s definition of sexual harassment includes “such unwelcome sexually determined behaviour (whether directly or by implication) as physical contact and advances; a demand or request for sexual favours; sexually coloured remarks; showing pornography; any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non verbal conduct of sexual nature”. These include comments, jokes, whistling, filmi songs, continuously phoning a person. Gender harassment involves degradation of women at the group level such as making jokes about women as a group or posting pictures of women as sex objects. Unwanted sexual attention involves degradation of women at the individual level, such as treating a woman as a sex object by sending her dirty emails, grabbing her inappropriately, or leering at her. Harassment coping responses fall into four categories: (a) advocacy seeking recruiting formal support from organizational authorities; (b) social coping mobilizing emotional support and advice from trusted others; (c) avoidance/denialavoiding the harassing situation physically (e.g., avoiding the harasser’s workstation) or cognitively (e.g., denying the seriousness of the situation); and (d) confrontation/ negotiation directly requesting or insisting that the offensive behavior cease.