Discrepancies between Women’s Reports and Men’s Awareness of Sexual Harassment: A Study among Representatives to the Union Parishads in Bangladesh
Imdadul Haque Talukdar1, Karin Osterman1, Kaj Bjorkqvist11Developmental Psychology, Åbo Akademi University, Vasa, Finland
Objectives: The aim of the study was to investigate differences between reports of victimisation from sexual harassment by females and awareness of it among their male colleagues. Methods: A questionnaire was completed by 821 representatives, 412 females, 409 males, from the Union Parishads, the rural local governance bodies of Bangladesh. Sexual harassment was measured with the Sexual Harassment Experience Questionnaire, measuring different types of sexual harassment. Results: For all types of sexual harassment, reports by females on how often they were victimised were significantly higher than reports by males about how often they had observed female colleagues being harassed. Females 29?45 years of age were significantly more victimised from all types of sexual harassment than those 51?61 years old. Males 56?61 years of age scored higher than other males on observations of female victimisation from all types of sexual harassment. Females reported victimisation from verbal sexual harassment to be the most common type, followed by nonverbal harassment, and sexual harassment based on social manipulation; the least common type was victimisation from physical sexual harassment. Conclusion: Great discrepancies were found between reports by females of victimisation from sexual harassment in the Union Parishads and awareness of it by their male colleagues. Keywords: Awareness, Bangladesh, Union Parishads, sexual harassment, sex differences
Cite This Article
Talukdar I, Osterman K, Bjorkqvist K. Discrepancies between Women’s Reports and Men’s Awareness of Sexual Harassment: A Study among Representatives to the Union Parishads in Bangladesh. EJMI. 2019; 3(3): 196-204
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