Harassment and Discrimination at U.S. Social Work Conferences: Help-Seeking and Help-Giving Experiences and Perceptions

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the current study is to understand the experiences and perceptions of help-seeking among individuals who have experienced sexual harassment or discrimination at social work academic conferences. METHOD: We conducted a mixed-method cross-sectional survey with 290 social work conference attendees. Chi-square tests, t-tests, and analysis of variance were conducted to examine relationships among key study variables, and content analysis was used to interpret open-ended responses and explain quantitative results. RESULTS: We found that nearly 90% of participants who experienced harassment or discrimination disclosed the incident to someone, and less than a third filed a formal complaint with the conference leadership. Participants expressed concerns about the potential impact of the disclosure on their careers and the lack of protection from retaliation. Few participants reported that attendees would intervene if they observed harassment and discrimination. CONCLUSION: By better understanding the barriers to reporting, social work academic organizations can adopt best practices to create safer spaces for faculty, staff, and students' professional development. Social Work academic conferences should have highly visible anti-harassment and discrimination policies and codes of conduct that include clear reporting procedures with impartial individuals to receive and respond to reports. Future research should focus on the intentional recruitment of more representative samples, including BIPOC, LGBTQ+ scholars, early-career faculty, doctoral students, male attendees, and non-tenure-track faculty.