Outing Sexual Harassment of Women Journalists
by
Kim Walsh-Childers
Jean Chance
Kristin Herzog
College of Journalism and Communications
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611
Submitted for presentation in the Newspaper Division at the
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
conference in Washington, D.C., August 1995.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Special thanks to Naomi Rifkin for her work on the
survey. The authors also would like to thank Anita Kugler, Denise
Prodigo, Erica Shepard, Laura Smith, Heloiza Herscovitz, Roselyn
Dailey and the other volunteer interviewers for their assistance on
this project.
ABSTRACT
(150 words)
Outing Sexual Harassment of Women Journalists
Kim Walsh-Childers
Jean Chance
Kristin Herzog
College of Journalism and Communications
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611
A survey of 227 women reporters, photographers, editors and graphic
artists revealed that more than 60 percent believe sexual harassment
is at least somewhat a problem for women journalists, and more than
one-third said sexual harassment has been a at least somewhat a
problem for them personally. Almost two-thirds experience
non-physical sexual harassment at least sometimes, and about 17
percent experience physical sexual harassment at least sometimes.
Women were most likely to be harassed by news sources, and types of
harassment from co-workers making degrading comments or posting
sex-oriented pin-ups to sexual assault. The percentage of women in
the newsroom was related to likelihood of co-worker harassment. About
71 percent of women worked at newspapers that had a written policy
regarding sexual harassment. Women were most likely to define
unwanted physical contact as harassment and least likely to define
flirting with a female co-worker as harassment.
ABSTRACT
(67 words)
A survey of 227 women reporters, photographers, editors and graphic
artists revealed that more than 60 percent believe sexual harassment
is at least somewhat a problem for women journalists, and more than
one-third said sexual harassment has been a at least somewhat a
problem for them personally. Almost two-thirds experience
non-physical sexual harassment at least sometimes, and about 17
percent experience physical sexual harassment at least sometimes.
Outing Sexual Harassment of Women Journalists
ABSTRACT
(150 words)
Outing Sexual Harassment of Women Journalists
A survey of 227 women reporters, photographers, editors and graphic
artists revealed that more than 60 percent believe sexual harassment
is at least somewhat a problem for women journalists, and more than
one-third said sexual harassment has been a at least somewhat a
problem for them personally. Almost two-thirds experience
non-physical sexual harassment at least sometimes, and about 17
percent experience physical sexual harassment at least sometimes.
Women were most likely to be harassed by news sources, and types of
harassment from co-workers making degrading comments or posting
sex-oriented pin-ups to sexual assault. The percentage of women in
the newsroom was related to likelihood of co-worker harassment. About
71 percent of women worked at newspapers that had a written policy
regarding sexual harassment. Women were most likely to define
unwanted physical contact as harassment and least likely to define
flirting with a female co-worker as harassment.
ABSTRACT
(67 words)
A survey of 227 women reporters, photographers, editors and graphic
artists revealed that more than 60 percent believe sexual harassment
is at least somewhat a problem for women journalists, and more than
one-third said sexual harassment has been a at least somewhat a
problem for them personally. Almost two-thirds experience
non-physical sexual harassment at least sometimes, and about 17
percent experience physical sexual harassment at least sometimes.
Outing Sexual Harassment of Women Journalists
In 1992, when 640 journalists in 19 small, medium and large newsrooms around
the
United States were asked about sexual harassment in the newsroom and
on the job,
many of the comments that came back to the study committee were so
vehement that
they were handwritten on the back of the survey form. Although most
men surveyed
tended to say there was no sexual harassment problem at their
newspapers, women
said it is a potential, if not specific problem, and that it is
neither reported
nor punished in most instances (Kossan, 1992).
Considering the fact that sexual harassment is considered a form of sex
discrimination that is prohibited under Section 703 of Title VII of the
Civil
Rights Act of 1964, the fact that newswomen less than a decade away
from a new
millennium see sexual harassment as a workplace hazard deserves
special review.
The term sexual harassment is a relatively recent addition to our vocabulary.
Psychologist Julia Wood suggests that such harassment has existed for
most of
history but remained unnamed; the absence of visibility, which resulted
from the
fact that harassment had no negative effects on the men who held
power, made it
difficult to recognize, think about or stop. Because men were the
majority of the
nation's powerbrokers, there was no need to give a name to an
unidentified
problem until recent years (Wood, 1994).
Today courts have recognized two categories of sexual harassment, known as
"quid
pro quo" ("something for something") and "hostile environment"
discrimination.
The former refers to situations in which an individual promises a
subordinate
employee some sort of tangible job benefit, such as a raise, in
exchange for
sexual favors. This category also likely would include more negatively
stated
interactions, such as a supervisor's threat that the victim will lose
her job if
she refuses the supervisor's request for sexual favors. The latter,
"hostile
environment"
Sexual harassment of women journalists, page
discrimination, reflects circumstances in which an employee is subjected to a
pattern of behavior -- such as unwanted sexual advances, degrading
sexual
comments about the employee or similar problems -- that interferes
unreasonably
with an employee's ability to perform his or her job or makes the
workplace
environment inhospitable, intimidating or offensive.
Many scholars argue that sexual harassment of women is widespread throughout
academia (Adams, J.W., Kottke, J.L., & Padgitt, J.S., 1983; Andsager,
Nagy, &
Bailey, 1994; Hughes & Sandler, 1986; Kreps, 1992; Wood, 1992) and the
workplace
(Fitzgerald, et al., 1988; Jaschik and Maypole, 1991; Merit Systems
Protection
Board, 1981); however, a review of the communications and journalism
literature
suggests that relatively little research has been done on sex
discrimination and
particularly on sexual harassment as problems facing women
journalists. The few
studies the search did produce focused almost entirely on sex
discrimination and
the likelihood of women achieving rank and pay equity with men
(Paley, 1986;
Ogan, 1980; Holly, 1978; McCall, 1974; Schmidt & Collins, 1993). A
review of that
list also suggests that not much attention has been paid recently to
studies of
either discrimination against or harassment of women journalists.
One exception, the Associated Press Managing Editors association harassment
study in 1992, opened some eyes, Pam Johnson, managing editor of The
Phoenix
Gazette and chairwoman of the APME Newsroom Management Committee, said
in a
membership newsletter. Some of the major discoveries:
*only 30 percent of the respondents said their newspaper had clear guidelines
for filing internal complaints about sexual harassment;
*95 percent of the victims of sexual harassment are women;
*2 percent of the men and 11 percent of the women said sexual harassment or the
fear of harassment has affected their daily work habits;
*half of those who said they had been sexually harassed said the harassment was
in the form of annoying or degrading comments about sex.
While the most prevalent form of harassment was annoying or degrading comments
about sex, followed by offensive pictures or posters and annoying or
degrading
comments about women's bodies, the APME study found that women also
reported
having male associates grab their breasts and buttocks or make "jokes"
to them
about rape (Kossan, 1993).
Johnson, in writing about the study, observed:
Women in our newsrooms are impatient. They don't want to get ogled. They
don't want to receive sex-related messages in their computers,
they don't
want to be put in the place of laughing off a sexual joke or
challenging it
and then having to pay for being forthright. And they definitely
don't want
to be fondled. But it's clear many feel vulnerable to any or all
of these
situations (Johnson, 1993, p. 11).
One recent study of women journalists in Washington, D.C., showed that 60
percent of the women accredited to the Capitol press gallery had been
sexually
harassed. The researchers, Katherine McAdams and Maurine Beasley,
surveyed 273
women journalists and received responses from 37 percent. Of those who
responded,
80 percent said they believe sexual harassment is a problem for women
journalists. McAdams and Beasley (1992) argue that the issue of sexual
harassment
among women journalists needs to be investigated and brought into the
open so
that individual women no longer have to deal with the problem alone.
At the time of their study, Beasley and McAdams noted finding only one previous
newsroom survey about sexual harassment. That study, conducted for
the newspaper
trade publication NewsInc., showed that 44 percent of the 199
newsroom women
surveyed had experienced sexual harassment on the job. That figure was
twice the
number of women in all fields reporting harassment in a 1991
Newsweek/Gallup Poll
(McAdams & Beasley, 1992). On the other hand, earlier studies have
suggested that
more than half of all working women have experienced some form of
sexual
harassment in their careers (Farley, 1978; U.S. Merit Systems Protection
Board,
1981).
More recently, Bowen and Laurion (1994) studied sexual harassment among mass
communication professionals. Among their sample of 52 female and 44
male
respondents, the authors found that 32 percent had experienced sexual
harassment
as students, 49 percent had experienced sexual harassment as interns
in a mass
communication organization, and 65 percent had experienced sexual
harassment
during their professional careers.
To most women, the importance of discovering the extent of sexual harassment
among any group of women workers may seem obvious, and the threat of
legal action
by a harassed employee should be enough to get the attention of even
the most
old-fashioned newsroom managers. But the research also indicates that
there are
bottom-line considerations that make understanding and attempting to
solve the
problem of sexual harassment more pressing. In short, the research
indicates that
sexual harassment have negative effects on women's work performance,
as well as
career advancement (Benson & Thomson, 1982; Crull, 1982; Merit
Systems Protection
Board, 1981). In fact, the federal report Sexual Harassment in the
Federal
Government: An Update, estimated that harassment costs the federal
government
$267 million over two years, including $76.3 million in lost individual
productivity (Seligman, 1988). Newspapers may not be able to figure the
monetary
costs of sexual harassment so conclusively, but there must be costs
-- in lost
concentration on the stories, photos or graphics harassment that
victims would
rather be working on.
Another major potential source of costs of which newspapers must be wary is
lawsuits filed by women journalists who've been sexually harassed at
work. Bunker
(1994) concluded from a review of legal cases involving sexual
harassment that
media organizations should work to eliminate sexual harassment for
their
employees for selfish as well as noble reasons. He noted that:
Media organizations, like other employers, are subject to strict liability
for quid pro quo harassment by supervisors. In cases of hostile
environment
harassment, whether the harassment originates from supervisors,
co-workers
or non-employees, media organizations can be held vicariously
liable if they
know or should have known of the harassment and do not take
immediate and
effective steps to remedy it. (1994, p. 14).
In the summer of 1991, the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times broke a significant
local
story about charges of sexual harassment and sex discrimination at
one of the
city's larger employers. Women at the company charged that less
qualified men
were paid more, promoted sooner and given better assignments. Subtle
and even
blatant sexual harassment was tolerated.
What made the story particularly significant was that the company in question
was the St. Petersburg Times itself, and many of the women who had
crowded into
Chief Executive Andrew Barnes' office to voice their complaints were
reporters,
editors and photographers. Some of the stories the women told Barnes
in that
meeting and in a written report could compete for sheer impropriety with
the
comments Anita Hill claimed Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas had
made to
her. One man had said to a pregnant female staffer, "Your breasts are
really
getting huge." Another, a senior editor, had been talking with other
editors
about a company called TMS and the problems it was causing the
newspaper. He
turned to the female editor in the group and explained that TMS should
"not be
confused with PMS, which is worse for the company" (Times News Women,
1991, pg.
3). The story attracted attention from other newspapers statewide, as
well as
national trade journals, and demonstrated that sexual harassment and
sex
discrimination are issues newspaper managers must be prepared to deal with
within
the newsroom, not just in stories about other organizations'
problems. Sitting at
his desk in downtown St. Petersburg, Barnes heard many of his
newspaper's leading
journalists offer the harsh assessment, "Times management has become
precisely
the kind of exclusive, all-white, all-male club that we lambast in our
editorial
pages" (Times News Women, 1991, pg. 1).
Previous research and anecdotes like those reported by the female staffers of
the St. Petersburg Times leave little doubt that sexual harassment is
likely a
problem for women newspaper journalists in the 1990s, despite all the
effort
those newspapers may put into coverage of and editorial outcry against
sexual
harassment in other fields. The study this paper discusses was designed
to
provide data about the extent and sources of sexual harassment that women
journalists face.[1] We hoped to address a number of research questions,
including
the following:
1. What percentage of women have experienced sexual harassment during their
careers as reporters, photographers, editors and newspaper graphic
artists?
2. Who are the primary sources of this harassment -- supervisors, peers,
subordinates, news sources?
3. What percentage of newspapers have written policy statements about sexual
harassment, and to what extent are all employees aware of these
policies?
4. Are there personal or work environment characteristics that increase or
decrease the likelihood that women will experience sexual harassment as
journalists?
5. What do women do about the instances of sexual harassment they encounter?
Methods
Female reporters, photographers, editors and graphic artists were randomly
selected for participation in the survey using a multi-level stratified
sampling
procedure. First, the researchers drew separate samples of small,
medium and
large newspapers (72 small, 32 medium and 16 large newspapers). We then
contacted
a newsroom manager (usually the managing editor) at each newspaper
included in
the samples and asked him or her to send us a list of all the female
reporters,
editors, photographers and graphic artists on the newspaper's staff,
including
those working at bureaus. After obtaining these lists, the lists were
arranged in
random order, and we then randomly selected names from the lists.
This procedure
ultimately produced a final sample of 208 women from small newspapers
(daily
circulation less than 25,000), 184 women from mid-sized newspapers
(daily
circulation of 25,001-100,000) and 190 women from large newspapers (daily
circulation greater than 100,000).
After all the names had been chosen, we sent each sample member a letter
describing our project and requesting her cooperation.[2] The letter also
informed
sample members that only female students or faculty members would be
conducting
the study interviews. Interviewers first called each sample member to
arrange an
appropriate time and place to complete the interview; any woman who
did not feel
comfortable discussing the subject in her work environment were asked
for home
telephone numbers and called at home. The first part of each interview
was
conducted using a computer-assisted telephone interviewing program;
interviewers
subsequently asked each participant for more details about her
experiences, using
a schedule of open-ended questions.
The data from the interviews were analyzed using SPSS for Windows.
Measures
Evaluation of sexual harassment as a problem
For this section of the survey, respondents were told that "(f)or the purposes
of the survey, sexual harassment is defined as any physical or verbal
contacts
that make the workplace inhospitable for women because of their
gender." Each
respondent then was asked to say whether, in her opinion, sexual
harassment was
"no problem at all, not much of a problem, somewhat of a problem, a
significant
problem or a very serious problem" for women as newspaper reporters,
editors,
photographers or graphic artists. Each respondent used the same scale
to indicate
how much of a problem sexual harassment had been for her personally
in her own
career as a journalist.
Experience with sexual harassment
Each respondent was asked how often she had been "subjected to sexual
harassment
that did not involve physical contact, such as inappropriate sexual
comments,
suggestions or gestures" made to her or in her presence by the
following types of
individuals: supervisors or others in positions of authority at the
newspaper,
other co-workers at her same level, other co-workers at levels lower
than hers,
news sources, employees of news sources or in any other professional
setting. For
each potential source of harassment, the respondent was asked whether
non-physical harassment had occurred never, rarely, sometimes, often or nearly
always/always. The interviewers then used the same scale (never,
rarely, etc.)
and the same series of potential sources (supervisors, same-level
co-workers,
etc.) to determine how often the respondent had been subjected to
"physical
sexual harassment -- that is, unwanted physical contact."
Definitions of sexual harassment
The respondents were asked whether they strongly agreed, agreed, neither agreed
nor disagreed, disagreed or strongly disagreed that the following
behaviors
constituted sexual harassment:
-- when a man frequently makes uninvited and unnecessary physical contact with
a
woman who works with him
-- when a man tells sexual jokes to a woman who has never told the same kind of
jokes to him
-- when a man pressures a woman who works with him to go out on a date with him
-- when a man frequently makes uninvited remarks that have sexual references or
double meanings to a woman who works with him
-- when a man flirts with a female co-worker who has never flirted with him
-- when a man displays sexually oriented pictures or calendars in places where
women also work.
Sexual harassment policies
Respondents were asked whether their newspaper has a written policy statement
dealing with sexual harassment. Those who said the newspaper had such
a policy
were asked: "Are all employees equally aware of this policy, are women
more
likely to be aware of it or are men more likely to be aware of the
policy?"
Demographic and work-environment information
Each respondent was asked for her year of birth, marital status, job title, how
many years she had worked as a journalist, how many people worked in
the newsroom
where she worked, what percentage of those people were women, whether
her
immediate supervisor was a man or a woman, and whether news employees at
her
newspaper were members of a union.
Results
Our goal had been to include about 100 women from each size of newspapers in
the
final survey, and we had anticipated that we would need approximately
twice as
many women in the initial sample to account for refusals to
participate,
ineligible respondents, sample members who never could be reached, etc. The
most
serious difficulty we encountered turned out to be contacting sample
members,
particularly those from the large and mid-sized newspapers, before
they left
their jobs, often for employment outside newspapers. Once we had
contacted sample
members, refusals to participate in the survey were quite rare. Of
the 582 women
included in the original sample, we ultimately made some type of
contact with
396, although in 85 cases, we only learned that the woman no longer
worked at
that newspaper. Of the 311 women our interviewers did speak with, only
33 refused
to participate, for an unusually low refusal rate of 10.6 percent.
Eighty-four
other women were contacted and agreed to participate, but could not be
int
erviewed because of scheduling difficulties or some other problem.
Not surprisingly, the largest number of respondents were reporters (39
percent).
Eleven percent of the respondents were copy editors, 15 percent were
section
editors (i.e. editors of features, business or sports sections), and 4
percent
were city editors or assistant city editors. Fourteen respondents (6.2
percent)
were news editors, and an equal number described themselves as
editors[3]. Six of
the repondents (2.6 percent) held managing editor or assistant
managing editor
positions, and another six were photographers. The remainder of the
sample were
graphic artists (4.4 percent), photo editors (1.8 percent), editorial
writers or
columnists (1.8 percent), held some other position (1.8 percent) or
gave no title
(3.5 percent).
__________________________
Table 1 about here
__________________________
Table 1 shows a variety of demographic characteristics of the sample, including
respondents' average age and number of years of experience as a
journalist, the
average number of employees in their newsrooms and the average
percentage of
female newsroom employees. The women ranged in age from 23 to 74, and
their
experience as journalists ran from less than one year to 45 years. The
smallest
newsroom had only three employees; the largest an estimated 400
employees. The
percentage of newsroom employees who were women ranged from 4 to 90
percent.
About two-thirds (67 percent) of the women had males as their immediate
supervisors, about 31 percent had female immediate supervisors, and five
women
reported having one or more supervisor of each gender. Nearly half of
the women
(47.6 percent) were married, and slightly fewer (41 percent)
described themselves
as "single." Twenty-one women were divorced (9.3 percent), and five
described
their status as "other."[4]
__________________________
Table 2 about here
__________________________
Table 2 shows the respondents' answers to two questions about the extent to
which sexual harassment affects women as journalists. The women were
asked to
indicate whether sexual harassment was no problem, not much of a
problem,
somewhat a problem, a significant problem or a very serious problem for
women
journalists in general and in their own careers specifically. About 60
percent of
the women said sexual harassment is at least somewhat a problem for
women as
reporters, photographers, editors and graphic artists, and more than one
in 10
(11.5 percent) said sexual harassment is a significant or very serious
problem
for women journalists. Lower percentages reported having substantial
trouble with
sexual harassment in their own careers; nonetheless, more than
one-third (36.1
percent) said sexual harassment had been at least somewhat a problem
for them
personally, and 17 women (7.5 percent) reported having had significant
or serious
problems with sexual harassment during their careers.
__________________________
Table 3 about here
_________________________
Cross-tabulation analysis determined that there was a significant relationship
between beliefs about the seriousness of sexual harassment as a
problem for women
journalists and age. As Table 3 shows, older women (41-74 years old)
were three
times as likely as the youngest women (23-30 years old) or the middle
age group
(31-40) to say that sexual harassment was no problem at all for women
journalists. Women in the 23-30 age group were twice as likely as those in the
middle group and more than three times as likely as the oldest women
to regard
sexual harassment as a significant or very serious problem for women
journalists.
Women's ratings of sexual harassment as a problem for women journalists also
were related to the percentage of women in their newsrooms. As Table 3
shows,
women working in newsrooms in which more than half of the employees
were female
were far more likely to say that sexual harassment was little or no
problem for
women journalists; these women were more than four times as likely as
women in
the least-female-populated newsrooms to say that sexual harassment was
no problem
at all for women journalists.
None of the demographic or work environment variables showed any significant
relationship with women's views of sexual harassment as a problem in
their own
careers.
Experience with sexual harassment
__________________________
Tables 4, 5 about here
__________________________
Respondents also were asked to indicate how often they personally had been
subjected to two types of sexual harassment -- harassment that did not
involve
physical contact (sexual comments, jokes, etc.) and harassment that
did involve
physical contact (unwanted touching, etc.) -- from a variety of
sources. Tables 4
and 5 show the respondents' answers to these questions. The results
indicate that
news sources were the most likely to harass women journalists both
physically and
without making physical contact. More than 44 percent of the women
reported that
sources at least sometimes subjected them to non-physical sexual
harassment, and
about 6 percent reported physical sexual harassment by sources at
least
sometimes. More than one-fourth of the women had at some time experienced
physical sexual harassment by a news source, and more than 70 percent of
the
women had experienced non-physical sexual harassment by a source.
Overall, at least one-fourth of the women said they experienced non-physical
sexual harassment at least sometimes from their supervisors or others
in
positions of authority over them (25.1 percent) and from co-workers at their
same
level (29.1 percent), and nearly one-fourth experienced such
harassment from
subordinates (23.6 percent) or in other professional settings (22.5
percent).
Almost 5 percent had been physically harassed at least sometimes by
their
supervisors and same-level peers.
__________________________
Table 6 about here
__________________________
Because the results shown in Tables 4 and 5 do not indicate whether the same
women were experiencing harassment from a variety of sources, we
created two new
variables that indicated whether the respondents had been subjected
to
non-physical or physical sexual harassment at least sometimes from any source.
In
other words, had the women experienced physical sexual harassment at
least
sometimes, regardless of the person engaging in the harassment. Table 6
shows
that more than two-thirds of the women (67.4 percent) had experienced
non-physical harassment at least sometimes by someone in their work
environments,
and 16.7 percent of the women had been physically sexually harassed
at least
sometimes, regardless of the identity of the harasser. In addition, the
table
shows that nearly one in four women had experienced non-physical
harassment by
three or more sources, and about 6 percent had been physically
harassed by two or
more sources. These results suggest that sexual harassment is
occurring among
women journalists in a relatively widespread manner; it isn't just a
few women
who are being affected by harassment from multiple sources.
Crosstabulations were conducted to determine whether a woman's chances of being
subjected to either non-physical or physical sexual harassment were
related to
her job title, age, immediate supervisor's gender, the size of the
newspaper for
which she worked, her years of experience as a journalist, or the
percentage of
women in the newsroom. Analyses revealed no significant effects for
any of these
variables for the measures of combined experience with non-physical
or physical
sexual harassment. However, some significant differences did exist in
measures of
non-physical harassment by specific types of work contacts. These
figures are
illustrated in Tables 7-9.
__________________________
Tables 7-9 about here
__________________________
As Table 7 shows, the percentage of women in the newsroom was significantly
related to a respondent's likelihood of being sexually harassed by
co-workers at
her same level; women whose newsrooms were one-third female or less
were more
likely to experience non-physical harassment at least sometimes. This
may simply
reflect the fact that women are less likely to be harassed by their
same-gender
peers, so more women in the newsroom means fewer co-workers who're
likely to
harass them. It also may be, however, that predominantly male newsrooms
create a
more sympathetic environment for employees inclined to subject their
peers to
verbal or visual sexual harassment.
Table 8 illustrates that reporters and photographers -- women who spend more
time outside the newsroom itself -- were less likely to report having
been
harassed by subordinates than were copy editors, graphic artists and
others who
spend all or nearly all of their work hours in the newsroom. Again,
this may
reflect a simple difference in opportunities; reporters and
photographers may
spend less time around subordinates and therefore have fewer chances to
be
sexually harassed. A more likely explanation may be that reporters and
photographers are less likely to feel that they have any lower-level
co-workers.
On this question, women did not have the option of saying the
question did not
apply to them.
On the other hand, Table 9 indicates that reporters and photographers' time
outside the newsroom makes them more vulnerable to being sexually
harassed by
news sources. Nearly 60% of reporters and photographers said sources
had sexually
harassed them at least sometimes, compared to more than one-third of
copy
editors, graphic artists and others working primarily inside the newsroom.
Responses to the open-ended questions at the end of each interview indicated
that the types of sexual harassment the women journalists experienced
ranged from
the merely irritating -- being called "honey" and "sweetie" or "that
little girl"
-- to the downright dangerous. One political reporter from a small
Midwest
newspaper said she deals with condescending name-calling by simply
returning the
favor: "After I treat them the way they treat me, by calling them
'sweetie' or
something like that, it doesn't happen after that."
Other women, however, reported having to deal with much more disturbing
instances of sexual harassment by sources. For instance, one police beat
reporter
from a small newspaper in a Mid-Atlantic state recounted two
instances in which
she went to a district attorney's office to conduct interviews and
found him
playing confiscated X-rated videotapes. He continued to watch them
during the
interviews, telling her, "We just got these tapes in, and I have to
look at
them." Not surprisingly, the woman found the experience unnerving.
"It just didn't make sense that he would put them in the tape player. They're
(videotape characters) having sex, totally nude, on TV. It was
disturbing and
uncomfortable, and I was trying to ask him questions. I just
ignored it. I
probably should have asked him to turn it off, but I didn't. He's
a pretty
intimidating man anyway."
Another woman, who works for a large Midwestern newspaper, was equally unnerved
by the behavior of a bond trader she interviewed at his office. She
noticed that,
while showing her a computer program he used, he kept brushing his
knee against
her; she also noted that, as staff members left the office about 5
p.m., each
seemed to make a point of letting her know they were leaving.
Uncomfortable being
left alone with the man, the woman got up to leave; as she did, the
source
brushed her long hair back behind her shoulder. "From your father, it
might be
endearing," the woman recalled, "but coming from someone like that, I
found it
very offensive."
Many of the respondents who work or have worked as reporters reported that
sources often suggested going to a bar or to a motel to conduct
interviews or
that sources would joke with each other about whether the reporter was
having sex
with one of them or might be willing to do so. Other respondents
described
instances of blatant physical sexual harassment by sources. One reporter
had a
source who was a doctor approach her from behind and give her a "full
body
press." Startled, she responded by saying, "Rape," softly but loud enough
for him
to hear. The doctor left the room and had no contact with the
reporter for the
next few months.
One woman from a small Northeastern newspaper recalled being propositioned by a
source whose house she had gone to. "He propositioned me, tried to
force himself
on me. I got out of it by talking fast. I had gone to his house to do
the
interview, so he considered it OK, I guess."
Unfortunately, sources were not the only perpetrators of sexual harassment. One
woman recounted an incident during a news meeting in which the
managing editor
asked another female staffer, who was wearing a mini-skirt, to turn
around so the
group could appreciate her outfit and suggested that she ought to
wear
mini-skirts more often.
A photographer/photo editor who works for a mid-sized Southwestern paper
reported that both sources and co-workers frequently make comments about
her
breasts. Once, during an assignment in Central America, she contracted a
water-borne illness that resulted in significant weight loss. When she
returned
to the newsroom, a manager noted how much weight she had lost and
said, "It's too
bad it all came out of your boobs."
A night editor from a small paper reported that the newspaper's sports editor
regularly comes by her desk and rubs her shoulders and touches her
hair. When she
finishes her work, she said, she sometimes asks if there's anything
she can help
him with because he has to deal with more late-breaking news. Her
offer to help
is greeted with more harassment: "He always -- every single day --
says, 'Yes,
there is something you can do," and then laughs. A journalist from a
Southeastern newspaper reported that her manager once had called her at home
and
asked her to meet him at a lounge to discuss something work-related.
"When I got
there, he was really drunk, and he said, 'You want it, and you know
you do.' I
went out the fire escape to get out of there. When I left, I was
fearful I had
lost my job. But I think he was so drunk he didn't even remember doing
it."
A reporter from a mid-sized newspaper in the Northeast had a similar experience
with her newspaper's former chief editor. She and a male friend had
run into the
editor at a social event, and the editor had invited them back to a
party at his
apartment. The reporter and her friend decided to go, knowing that
other
co-workers would be there, and the editor offered to let the reporter drive
his
expensive sports car to the apartment, while her friend followed in
his own car.
"This man had always been very kind to me," she recalled. "I had no
reason to
expect anything." But after she got into the driver's seat, the editor
began
telling her that "the things he would like to do with me and to me would
make him
lose his job. He kept saying he was disturbed about the thoughts he
was having
about me." She got out of the car and didn't go to the party.
Another of this woman's co-workers circulated throughout the newsroom a list of
all the women in the newsroom, ranked according to how much he wanted
to have sex
with each one.
Definitions of sexual harassment
In addition to learning about the extent of physical and non-physical sexual
harassment among women journalists, we also were interested in
determining how
women in the newsroom define sexual harassment. Thus, Table 10 shows
the women's
responses to questions about whether a variety of types of behavior
constitute
sexual harassment. Specifically, we asked the women to use a
five-point scale to
indicate the extent to which they would define it as sexual
harassment if a man:
(a) made repeated, unwanted physical contact with a female co-worker,
(b) told
sexual jokes to a female co-worker who had never told him similar
jokes, (c)
pressured a female co-worker for a date, (d) repeatedly made remarks
with sexual
meanings or double entendres to a female co-worker, (e) flirted with
a female
co-worker who had not previously flirted with him, or (f) displayed
sexually
oriented posters or calendars in areas where female co-workers would
have to see
them.
__________________________
Table 10 about here
__________________________
As Table 10 shows, there was strong agreement that a man who makes repeated,
unwanted physical contact with a female co-worker is engaging in sexual
harassment; 98.7 percent of the women either agreed or strongly agreed with
this
statement. Almost as high a percentage (92.5 percent) said pressuring
a female
co-worker for a date constitutes sexual harassment, and 87.7 percent
either
agreed or strongly agreed that making sexual comments or double entendres
to a
female co-worker constituted sexual harassment. The great majority of
respondents
(86.3 percent) also agreed or strongly agreed that displaying sexy
posters or
calendars was sexual harassment, and about 81 percent agreed that
telling sexual
jokes to a female co-worker who never had told the same kind of jokes
to the man
constituted harassment. The behavior least likely to be defined as
sexual
harassment was flirting with a female co-worker who hadn't flirted with the
man
before; 37.9 percent of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed,
but more than
a third (33.9 percent) disagreed or strongly disagreed.
__________________________
Table 11 about here
__________________________
Crosstabulations were conducted to determine whether demographic or newspaper
characteristics (age, years of experience, circulation size) were
related to
respondents' likelihood of defining each of the behaviors as sexual
harassment.
As Table 11 shows, age was significantly related to one measure --
whether the
respondent agreed that displaying sexually oriented pictures was
sexual
harassment; the oldest group of women (41-74 years old) were nearly twice as
likely to strongly agree (59.3 percent) as were the youngest group, 23-
to
30-year-olds (31.1 percent). The relationship between age group and
agreement
that telling sexual jokes constituted harassment approached
significance (p.=
.11), and the trend reflected the same pattern. Women in the oldest
group were
more likely than those in either of the two younger groups to agree
that a man
was sexually harassing a female co-worker if he told sexual jokes when
she never
had told him the same kind of joke.
__________________________
Table 12 about here
__________________________
The only other relationship that approached significance was between
circulation
size and the likelihood that respondents defined flirting as sexual
harassment
(See Table 12). In this case, women at the mid-sized newspapers
(25,001-100,000
circulation) appeared to be least likely to consider flirting to be
sexual
harassment (p. = .11).
Finally, the six specific questions about definitions of sexual harassment were
combined into a moderately reliable scale (Cronbach's alpha = .74),
and this
scale was tested for correlations with the respondents' age, years of
journalism
experience and the extent to which she had experienced both physical
and
non-physical sexual harassment throughout her career. Only age was
significantly
correlated with this scale, and the correlation, though significant
(p. < .01),
was quite low -- .19.
Sexual harassment policies
Each respondent also was asked whether her newspaper had a written policy
regarding sexual harassment and if so, whether there were gender
differences in
awareness of the policy. As Table 13 shows, about 71 percent of the
women said
their newspapers do have a formal, written sexual harassment policy.
About 13
percent of the women said the newspaper did not have such a policy, and
another
16 percent were not sure whether or not a sexual harassment policy
existed. Of
the respondents whose newspapers did have a formal policy, the
majority (70
percent) said male and female employees were equally likely to be aware
of the
policy. About 19 percent thought women were more likely to be aware of
the
policy, and one seven respondents (4 percent) thought men were more aware
of it.
Discussion and Conclusions
Study limitations
The respondents included in this survey were randomly selected, so these
results
should reflect fairly accurately the experiences and opinions of
female
journalists working at newspapers throughout the United States. However, one
significant concern arises from the fact that the surveys have taken a
relatively
long time to complete. Interviewing began during the summer of 1993,
and the last
of the respondents whose data are included in this report were
interviewed in
February, 1995. It's possible that events occurring during the
intervening months
may have increased the later respondents' awareness of sexual
harassment issues.
For instance, there was a fairly widely publicized fall 1993 case in
which the
Supreme Court ruled in favor of a woman who had sued her employer for
sexual
harassment under the "hostile environment" rule. Newswomen certainly
would have
been likely to have been exposed to at least wire service coverage of
this case,
which could have increased the likelihood that they would begin to
redefine as
harassment behavior that does not include unwanted physical contact.
Another concern is the relatively large number of women who had left their jobs
at the sample newspapers by the time we attempted to contact them. We
have no way
of knowing whether their experiences differed significantly from
those of the
women we interviewed. It is possible, for instance, that problems with
sexual
harassment contributed to their decisions to leave their newspapers,
which would
mean that our results underestimate the extent of sexual harassment
newspaperwomen are encountering.
Discussion
Despite these limitations, however, the results strongly suggest that sexual
harassment is a significant problem for women working in America's
daily
newspapers. More than one-third of these women said sexual harassment has
been at
least somewhat a problem in their own careers as journalists, and
three of every
five respondents believe sexual harassment is a problem for women
journalists in
general. The difference in those two figures is interesting and may
be explained,
in part, by the fact that even women who have not themselves
experienced blatant
sexual harassment are aware when other women in their newsrooms have
such
experiences. During the open-ended questions at the end of our interviews,
we
found that many respondents who had not experienced harassment much
themselves
were deeply concerned about incidents involving other women with whom
they
worked. While knowing about someone else's experience with harassment may
not be
as stressful as direct experience with harassment, it probably helps
to create a
less-than-ideal working atmosphere.
Another important finding of this study was that, in comparison to the APME
survey, we found a much higher percentage of women who said they
experienced
sexual harassment at least sometimes. Among our respondents, more than
two-thirds
experienced non-physical sexual harassment at least sometimes, when
all possible
sources of harassment were considered, and about 17 percent
experienced physical
sexual harassment at least sometimes. Only about 38 percent of the
APME survey's
female respondents said they had ever been subjected to sexual
harassment at
their newspapers (Kossan, 1993). Some of the difference may be explained
by the
wording of questions. We asked respondents about their experiences
throughout
their careers, while the wording of the APME survey question may have
limited
women's responses to those involving their present newspaper. Thus, the
women in
our survey may have been reflecting experiences over a broader span
of time and
more newspapers. It also is possible, however, that the APME's
respondents were
working for more enlightened employers; the papers involved in the
APME study,
after all, had volunteered to participate.
Another contrast with the APME study appears in the identity of persons doing
the harassing. Among our respondents, problems with sexual harassment
were most
common in women's interactions with news sources, who were more
likely than any
category of co-workers to harass women journalists in either physical
or
non-physical ways. In the APME survey, on the other hand, 67 percent of
women who
had been harassed said the harasser was a co-worker, compared to 20
percent who
had been harassed by a source or client.
This harassment by sources may be especially troubling to women journalists
because many seem to feel powerless to do anything about it. In response
to the
open-ended questions, many women expressed the view that there was no
effective
way to prevent harassment by sources because the journalist must
depend on these
sources for information. One woman from a small Southeastern
newspaper said, for
instance, that most women reporters simply put up with harassment
from sources
rather than alienating them. This woman, who had had a police
detective ask what
color panties she was wearing and throw a pair of underwear in her
face during an
interview, said she did not confront him about it. "I continued to
work with him
as a news source. To report it would have made it worse." Another
woman said she
wouldn't know what to do about a source's harassment because "in our
case the
person you would have to go to is the one person who makes women most
uncomfortable in the newsroom."
Other women dealt with the harassment more aggressively. The business reporter
who was sexually harassed by the bond trader reported the incident to
her
supervisor, who backed her in her decision to stop using the man as a
source and
to tell him specifically why she no longer would seek his opinions
for stories.
Another woman, who now works for a mid-sized paper in a North-Central
state,
reported that while working as a police beat reporter in Florida, she
had been
called out on a dark, rainy night to cover a wreck. The officer who
had called
her about the wreck suggested that she get into his car to write down
the names
of those involved, and when she did, he "attacked" her. She slapped
him, got out
of his car, and later reported the incident to her supervisors.
"Luckily when I
slapped him, he backed off. I think he was stunned -- he was
certainly way
stronger than I was," she recalled. "It was part of what led him to be
canned
(fired)."
Harassment by sources may be most common, but the women we talked to also were,
in many cases, deeply disturbed by harassment they experienced from
co-workers
and supervisors. In at least some cases, this harassment has had
significant
effects on women's careers, spurring them to leave the newspaper to get
away from
a harassing situation or even, in one case, to turn down a promotion
that would
have put the woman in more frequent contact with a harassing
publisher. This
woman, who works now at a newspaper in the Northwest, said the publisher
had a
habit of touching women employees on the buttocks and rubbing their
shoulders.
"It just never ended -- and continual comments," the woman said. "The
funny part
is, I was offered the job of news editor, but I didn't take it
because of his
habits. So he was willing to offer a woman the job because he wanted to
make
money, and he wanted the experience I had. But he still had these other
habits."
Again, women who dealt aggressively with their harassers seemed most likely to
get positive results. A woman from a mid-sized New England newspaper
reported
that her male co-workers once put up a poster showing a woman
surrounded by 10
men, with the headline, "Put an end to rape. Say Yes."
The poster was up for about five seconds, and I marched into the managing
editor's office and asked him if he had seen it. He went back and
took one
look at it and immediately told them to take it down. In dealing
with this
stuff, the best thing to do is just go get a man with a brain in
his head,
as opposed to one of the ones with his brain between his legs.
Not surprisingly, the respondents in this survey were most likely to define as
sexual harassment behaviors involving unwanted physical contact and a
co-worker
pressuring a woman for a date. However, there also was substantial
agreement that
sexual remarks and comments with double meanings, displaying
sex-oriented posters
or calendars and telling sexual jokes to a woman who hadn't told the
man similar
jokes constituted sexual harassment. The only behavior we asked about
that wasn't
defined as sexual harassment by at least 50 percent of our
respondents was
flirting with a female co-worker who hadn't previously flirted with the
man.
We also found that about 71 percent of the women worked at newspapers where
there was a written policy regarding sexual harassment (16 percent
weren't sure
whether the newspaper had a policy), and 70 percent of those women
said male and
female employees were equally aware of the policy. The fact that
harassment still
is going on may suggest that male journalists, regardless of
newspaper policy,
simply aren't concerned about negative repercussions they might face
if accused
of sexual harassment. More likely, perhaps, is that male journalists
do not
understand that some of the more ambiguous behaviors, such as telling
jokes or
posting sexy photos, offend their female co-workers. Some studies also
have
indicated that male managers in certain kinds of workplaces -- including
police
stations, law firms, advertising agencies and newspapers -- view
their workplaces
as "unique environments, where sexual harassment can be excused"
(Kossan, p. 3).
Women who want to work in these traditionally male environments are
expected to
play by the boys' rules or not play at all.
On the other hand, it's important to note that many of our more veteran
respondents, in the open-ended section of the interview, stressed that their
work
environments had improved significantly over the course of their
careers. One
women, for instance, said that she had been surprised to receive our
initial
letter because her work environment seemed fine; she said the fact that
we were
doing the study made her guess that harassment still was a problem in
other
newsrooms.
Regardless of the reason, it seems clear that newspapers must begin to do a
better job of addressing the issue of sexual harassment if they want to
keep
their best and brightest female employees. From their recent
meta-analysis of
studies of job stress among journalists, Cook and Banks (1994)
concluded that
there is a strong relationship between job stress and burnout and
between job
burnout and intention to leave the profession. Sexual harassment may be
only one
source of job stress for women journalists, but it's an additional
stress. Female
journalists already face the same stresses male journalists face, and
that one
additional burden may be enough, in some cases, to send highly
competent,
top-performing women looking for somewhere else to work. As noted earlier,
even
when they stay in newspapers, sexual harassment may distract women
from the work
on which they really want to be concentrating. In that sense, sexual
harassment
of women journalists does a disservice not only to them but to
newspapers' read
ers as well.
For these reasons, as well as concern for common human decency and fairness,
newspaper owners, publishers and managers would do well to heed the
comments of
one of our survey respondents, a reporter from a medium-sized
Mid-Atlantic
newspaper. She said of her supervisors: "Sometimes, these people don't
seem to
think all the publicity about sexual harassment and sex discrimination
applies to
them and their behavior."
But it does.
Table 1: Age, years of experience, number and gender of newsroom
employees and supervisors and other demographic characteristics
among women at U.S. daily newspapers
Mean
Small Medium Large Total
(n) (105) (75) (47) (227)
Age 36.4 39.4 41.4 38.4
Years as a journalist 8.3 12.9 17.1 11.6
Estimated number of
newsroom employees 14.9 55.3 184.3 61.2
Percentage of female newsroom
employees 48.6 45.7 43.3 46.6
_________________________________________________________________
__
Percent
Women whose immediate
supervisor is:
Male 70.5 65.3 61.7 67.0
Female 28.6 30.7 36.2 30.8
One or more
of each 0.9 4.0 2.1 2.2
Other personal characteristics
Marital status
Never married 44.8 40.0 57.4 41.0
Married 44.8 45.3 34.0 47.6
Divorced 9.5 10.7 6.4 9.3
Other 0.9 4.0 2.1 2.2
Table 2: Women's descriptions of sexual harassment as a problem
for women as newspaper journalists and for their own careers
How much of a problem is sexual harassment
for women as newspaper journalists?
Percent
Small Medium Large Total
(n) (105) (75) (47) (227)
No problem at all 21.0 16.0 15.2 18.1
Not much problem 16.2 26.7 26.1 21.7
Somewhat a problem 53.3 41.3 50.0 48.7
Significant problem 7.6 12.0 8.7 9.3
Very serious problem 1.9 4.0 0.0 2.2
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
How much of a problem has sexual harassment
been for the respondent as a journalist?
Percent
Small Medium Large Total
(n) (105) (75) (47) (227)
No problem at all 31.4 30.7 23.4 29.5
Not much problem 40.0 26.7 34.0 34.4
Somewhat a problem 23.8 32.0 34.0 28.6
Significant problem 3.8 8.0 6.4 5.7
Very serious problem 1.0 2.7 2.1 1.8
_________________________________________________________________
___
Note: Newspaper size was not significantly related to
respondents' evaluations of sexual harassment as a problem for
all newspaper women or evaluations of their experiences with
sexual harassment.
Table 3: Women's descriptions of sexual harassment as a problem
for women as newspaper journalists, by age group
How much of a problem is sexual harassment
for women as newspaper journalists?
Percent
Age Group
23-30 31-40 41-74
(n) (61) (77) (86)
No problem at all 9.8 9.1 32.6
Not much problem 19.7 22.1 23.3
Somewhat a problem 54.1 61.0 32.6
Significant problem 13.1 5.2 10.5
Very serious problem 3.3 2.6 1.2
Chi-square (df=8) = 26.40, p. < .001
Percentage of Employees Who're Women
up to 33 33 to 50 more than
percent percent 50 percent
(n) (47) (57) (115)
No problem at all 6.4 12.3 26.1
Not much problem 19.1 24.6 20.9
Somewhat a problem 61.7 52.6 41.7
Significant problem 8.5 10.5 9.6
Very serious problem 4.3 0.0 0.9
Chi-square (df=8) = 14.61, p. < .07
Table 4: Frequency of non-physical sexual harassment by supervisors,
same-level co-workers, subordinates, news sources, employees of news
sources and in other professional settings
Percent of women reporting non-physical harassment
Some- Nearly always
(n=227) Never Rarely times Often or always
___________________________________________________________________________
__
By supervisors 46.3 28.6 20.3 4.8 0.0
By same-level
co-workers 38.3 32.6 22.9 5.3 0.9
By subordinates 52.7 23.7 21.0 2.2 0.4
By news sources 25.1 27.3 34.4 8.8 0.9*
By employees
of sources 53.3 26.4 12.3 1.8 0.0*
In any other
professional
setting 41.0 35.7 20.3 2.2 0.0*
___________________________________________________________________________
___
*Numbers in these rows do not add to 100 percent because some respondents
did not answer the question or said the question did not apply to them
because they had had no contact with sources of their employees. Seven
respondents (3.1 percent) said the question about sources did not apply
to
them, and 11 (4.8 percent) said the question about sources' employees
did
not apply to them.
Table 5: Frequency of physical sexual harassment by supervisors, same-level
co-workers, subordinates, news sources, employees of news sources and in
other professional settings
Percent of women reporting physical harassment
Some- Nearly always
(n=227) Never Rarely times Often or always
___________________________________________________________________________
___
By supervisors 89.0 6.6 4.4 0.4 0.0
By same-level
co-workers 80.6 14.5 4.8 0.0 0.0
By subordinates 86.8 10.1 3.1 0.0 0.0
By news sources 71.4 19.4 5.7 0.4 0.0*
By employees
of sources 85.9 9.7 0.9 0.0 0.0*
In any other
professional
setting 79.7 15.0 4.0 0.4 0.0*
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
*Numbers in these rows do not add to 100 percent because some respondents
did not answer the question or said the question did not apply to them
because they had had no contact with sources of their employees. Seven
respondents (3.1 percent) said the question about sources did not apply
to
them, and 8 (3.5 percent) said the question about sources' employees
did
not apply to them.
Table 6: Percentages of women reporting experiencing
non-physical or physical harassment at least sometimes by one or
more sources*
Percent
Non-physical Physical
harassment harassment
(n=227)
Has experienced harassment at
least sometimes, any source 67.4 16.7
Has experienced harassment
at least sometimes by:
One source 22.0 10.6
Two sources 19.4 5.3
Three sources 12.3 0.9
Four sources 9.3 0.0
Five sources 3.1 0.0
Six sources 1.3 0.0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
----------------
*Note: In this case, "sources" refers not to news sources but to
any type of professional contact -- supervisors, peers,
subordinates, news sources, sources' employees or people
encountered in other professional settings.
Table 7: Percentages of women journalists experiencing
non-physical sexual harassment by same-level co-workers, by
percentage of women in the newsroom.
Percentage of Newsroom Employees Who Are Female
Up to 34% to More than
33% 50% 50 %
(n) (47) (57) (115)
% experiencing
harassment at 44.7 24.1 25.2
least sometimes
Chi-square (df=6) = 14.23, p. < .05.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------Table 8: Percentages of
women journalists experiencing non-physical sexual harassment by
subordinate co-workers, by job title.
Respondent's Job
Reporters & All other
photographers positions
(n) (98) (118)
% experiencing
harassment at 13.3 32.2
least sometimes
Chi-square (df=3) = 11.92, p. < .01.
Table 9: Percentages of women journalists experiencing
non-physical sexual harassment by news sources, by job.
Respondent's Job
Reporters & All other
photographers positions
(n) (98) (118)
% experiencing
harassment at 57.6 34.8
least sometimes
Chi-square (df=3) = 11.79, p. < .01.
Table 10: Women journalists' definitions of behaviors as sexual
harassment
Percent agreement or disagreement that
Behavior behavior is sexual harassment
Strongly Strongly
(n=227) Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Disagree
Unwanted physical
contact 79.3 19.4 0.9 0.4 0.0
Pressuring co-worker for
a date 63.4 29.1 4.4 1.3 0.0
Making sexual remarks or
double entendres 48.0 39.6 8.4 4.0 0.0
Displaying sex-oriented
posters or calendars 47.1 39.2 8.8 4.4 0.0
Telling sexual jokes 34.4 46.3 9.7 9.7 0.0
Flirting with a female
co-worker 7.9 30.0 28.2 33.0 0.9
Table 11: Women journalists' definitions of behaviors as sexual
harassment, by age group
Percent agreement or disagreement that
displaying sex-oriented pictures or calendars is
sexual harassment
Age Strongly Strongly
Group Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Disagree
23-30 24.6 49.2 13.1 13.1 0.0
(n=61)
31-40 29.5 48.7 11.5 10.3 0.0
(n=78)
41-74 45.3 43.0 4.7 7.0 0.0
(n=86)
All ages 34.4 46.3 9.7 9.7 0.0
(n=225)
Chi-square (df=6) = 10.44, p. = .107
Table 11: (continued)
Percent agreement or disagreement that
displaying sex-oriented pictures or calendars is
sexual harassment
Age Strongly Strongly
Group Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Disagree
23-30 31.1 44.3 14.8 9.8 0.0
(n=61)
31-40 45.5 44.2 7.8 2.6 0.0
(n=78)
41-74 59.3 32.6 5.8 2.3 0.0
(n=86)
All ages 47.1 39.2 8.8 4.4 0.0
(n=225)
Chi-square (df=6) = 16.68, p. < .02.
Table 12: Women journalists' definitions of flirting as sexual
harassment, by age group
Percent agreement or disagreement that flirting with
female co-worker is sexual harassment
Daily Strongly Strongly
Circulation Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Disagree
Up to 25,000 9.5 38.1 23.8 27.6 1.0
(n=105)
25,001-100,000 6.7 17.3 36.0 40.0 0.0
(n=75)
100,001 or more 6.4 31.9 25.5 34.0 2.1
(n=47)
All sizes 34.4 46.3 9.7 9.7 0.0
(n=227)
Chi-square (df=8) = 13.0, p. = .112
Table 13: Percentage reporting existence and awareness of policies
prohibiting sexual harassment
Does respondent's newspaper Newspaper Daily Circulation
have written sexual
harassment policy? Up to 25,001- 100,001
25,000 100,000 or more Total
(n) (105) (75) (47) (227)
Yes 61.9 73.3 85.1 61.9
No 19.0 12.0 2.1 19.0
Don't know 8.8 4.8 2.6 19.0
Chi-square (df=4) = 10.74, p. < .05.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------
Which employees are more likely aware of
sexual harassment policy? (n=227)
Total
Men and women equally aware 81.5
Women more aware 13.8
Men more aware 1.5
Don't know 3.2
References
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[1] 1As the research work proceeded, the study team was able to conclude
that the factual support necessary to prove the need for this resea
rch did
not have to go beyond the fact that our when our Microso
ft computer
software program scanned this report for spelling er
rors, the word
"newswomen" was not recognized; the suggested sub
stitute word? Right --
newsman.
[2] 2Because we wished to compl
ete the survey within groups (small, medium
and large), we delay
ed mailing the study description letters to women until
we were ready to beg
in interviewing women from that group. Women from
small newspape
rs began receiving letters during the summer of 1993. Due to
dif
ficulties mustering enough volunteers to complete the interviews, we
were unable to begin surveying women from the mid-sized and larger
newspapers until the Spring of 1994.
[3] 3Some of these women may hav
e been copy editors rather than the
highest-ranking editor on th
e staff.
[4] 4The women were asked "What is your marital status?" and were no
t given
answer choices. It is possible that some of those who reported their
status as "single" had been married and divorced. Those who gav
e their
status as "other" usually were living with a steady part
ner, either male or
female.
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