Proceedings of the Global Conference on Gender Studies
Year: 2024
DOI:
[PDF]
An Investigation into Student-To-Academic Sexual Harassment in Australian Universities
Erika K. Smith
ABSTRACT:
Last year, amongst the huge swell of excitement for women’s sport during the FIFA Women’s World Cup, was also a reminder that women can and do get sexually harassed at work. The sexual assault of Jennifer Hermoso at the World Cup Final drew increased attention to workplace sexual harassment in Australia. Numerous reports across a diverse range of sectors and industries, including government, mining and resource, hospitality, health, music, finance and retail, have indicated that sexual harassment is widespread and pervasive. Additionally, (intersectional) women, gender diverse, sexuality diverse, culturally, and/or linguistically diverse were disproportionately affected. While student-to-student and academic-to-student sexual harassment research exists, there is a lack of research on student-to-academic sexual harassment (also known as contrapower). This presentation draws on qualitative data from academics who have experienced sexual harassment from students while working at Australian universities. Deloitte (2020) identified that sexual harassment in the workplace has negative implications on the economy, society, culture, and health of individuals. The presentation argues that because workplace sexual harassment is so widespread in Australia and abroad, all workplaces should be working to identify the issues, discuss solutions and actively try to prevent it from occurring. Within the academy, greater effort to protect staff is necessary and this begins by listening to their accounts.
keywords: workplace sexual harassment, university, contrapower, students, academics