Women build resistance to sexual harassment

Thursday, 31 March 2011 12:16 PM

A new study by the University of Michigan has claimed that sexual harassment may have become so commonplace that women have built up a resistance to it.

The research – which is published in the journal, Social Psychological and Personality Science – studied both men and women’s attitudes on the subject, finding that many women now consider what was once condoned as harassing behaviour as merely “bothersome.”

During the course of the year-long study, more than 50 percent of women reported at least one incident of sexual harassment, with many claiming it was only distressing when they saw it as frightening, but not when they saw it as bothersome

Commenting on the research findings, lead investigator, Isis Settles, said: “When women view sexual harassment as bothersome, it doesn’t seem to be associated with distress.”

“In some ways this suggests that sexual harassment is such a widespread problem that women have figured out ways to deal with it so it doesn’t interfere with their psychological well-being.”
 

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