How Subjective Is Sexual Harassment? An Examination of Rater Effects

Abstract

Two truisms about sexual harassment have come to light: Sexual harassment has a large subjective component, and women have a broader, more inclusive definition of harassment than men. Both of these truisms, based on research findings, have influenced social and organizational policies and the law. I review the research on the effects of rater's characteristics on their definition of sexual harassment and suggest that perhaps the subjectivity of sexual harassment has been overemphasized. In general, women and men do differ in their definitions of sexual harassment, but the difference is small and occurs only under certain conditions. In addition, older adults seem to have a broader definition of sexual harassment than younger adults.