The male gender as the perceived perpetrator of sexual harassment, perspectives of males in two higher educational institutions

Abstract

This study examined the sexual harassment policies of two higher educational institutions in Ghana and investigated how the sexual harassment policy documents have contributed to the understanding of the concept of sexual harassment of male lecturers in the two higher educational institutions namely University of Education, Winneba and University of Ghana, Legon. The study also investigated the reasons why the male gender is often alleged as the perceived perpetrator in instances of sexual harassment. Data for the study were qualitatively gathered through in-depth interviews from eight purposively selected participants from the University of Education, Winneba (UEW), and the University of Ghana, Legon (UG). Additional data were gathered from a review of policy documents on sexual harassment from both institutions. The data were thematically analysed drawing on a conceptual framework design from the sexual harassment policy documents of the two universities, the concept of gender stereotype and principles of the Organisational Model. The data revealed two contradictory findings: implicit comprehension and explicit comprehension of the concept of sexual harassment. The male is perceived as the perpetrator of sexual harassment because women are being defined as sexually passive; trivialising and normalising incidence of sexual harassment; defining manhood as perceived aggression and masculinity and access to unequal power. The study concludes that gender stereotyping is reinforced in the reasons why the male gender is perceived as the perpetrator and policy documents of universities implicitly contributesto these perceptions. The study recommendsthat institutions periodically update sexual harassment policies with data from incidence of sexual harassment since understanding these documents have implications in avoiding the enactment of any form of sexual harassment.