Sexual Harassment of Cisgender Women University Students: How the Gender Composition of Colleges Relates to Differential Prevalence

Gender harassment is the most common variant of sexual harassment and is often seen in male-dominated workplaces. Importantly, persistent gender harassment produces pronounced impairment in psychological and occupational domains. The current study aimed to examine the degree to which male dominated academic degree programs are associated with higher rates of sexual harassment compared to female dominated programs. Four academic fields were chosen for their gender disparity-business, engineering, health sciences, and education. Consistent with hypotheses, cisgender women students in the college of engineering were most likely to experience gender harassment by peers and faculty. Implications and future directions are discussed.