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2/3 US college students suffer sexual harassment
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-01-25 11:10
Nearly two-thirds of U.S. college students are affected by sexual harassment
-- ranging from offensive jokes and gestures to touching and grabbing, according
to a study released on Tuesday.
A recent AAUW study
finds sexual harassment is widespread on college campuses.
| Men are more likely
to harass than women, but women and men are equally likely to be harassed on
U.S. campuses, according to a report by the American Association of University
Women.
Researchers found that 62 percent of college students experienced sexual
harassment, and 32 percent of college students said they were victims of
physical harassment.
"The primary form of harassment that we're seeing is actually non-contact: it
tends to be remarks, gestures and jokes," Elena Silva, the report's co-author,
said in a telephone interview. "But the fact that one-third of college students
are experiencing some form of physical harassment is certainly a concern."
(Watch one woman tell her story -- 1:25)
In a representative survey of 2,036 undergraduates at U.S. colleges and
universities, 41 percent said they had sexually harassed someone.
"In most cases, these students say that they thought it was funny, the other
person liked it, or it is 'just a part of school life,'" the report found.
Common types of physical harassment include being touched, grabbed or pinched
in a sexual way, or intentionally brushing up against someone in a sexual way,
the study found.
Flashes of frontal or rear nudity, calling someone gay, lesbian or a
homophobic name or spreading sexual rumors about someone also were reported as
sexual harassment in the survey.
'You lose your confidence'
"It messes things up for you," said Heather Pennison, who has encountered
sexual harassment throughout her school career and is now a student at Georgia
Southern University.
"You lose your confidence, you don't want to go to class, you don't want to
go to certain parts of the campus," Pennison said by telephone before the survey
was released. "You're not getting the full experience that you should be
getting."
Less than 10 percent of all students report sexual harassment to a school
employee, the study found. Most student victims say the incident was "not a big
deal" even though it made victims feel "helpless" or "horrible."
"We have a real contradiction where students are saying, on the one hand,
it's no big deal and didn't report it ... but on the other hand, they say, 'Yes,
I was upset by it, yes, it made me feel bad about myself,'" Silva said.
The issue of sexual harassment grabbed U.S. headlines in 1991, when Anita
Hill leveled accusations against her former boss, Clarence Thomas, who was named
to the Supreme Court by then-President George H.W. Bush, the current president's
father.
In televised congressional hearings, Hill alleged Thomas pressured her for
dates and frequently talked about pornography and sexual acts. Thomas, who
denied Hill's claims, was confirmed by a 52-48 vote in the U.S. Senate.
The survey of students ages 18 to 24 was conducted online
by Harris Interactive and had a sampling error of plus or minus 2 percentage
points.
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