Severe and Pervasive? Consequences of Sexual Harassment for Graduate Students and their Title IX Report Outcomes

• Author: Nicole Bedera,Kathryn J. Holland,Allison E. Cipriano,Sarah R. Eagan,Alex S. Diede
• Date: 01 July 2022
• Published date: 01 July 2022
• DOI: 10.1177/15570851211062579
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Feminist Criminology

2022, Vol. 17(3) 343–367

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/15570851211062579

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Severe and Pervasive?

Consequences of Sexual

Harassment for Graduate

Students and their Title IX

Report Outcomes

Allison E. Cipriano

1

, Kathryn J. Holland

1

, Nicole Bedera

2

,

Sarah R. Eagan

1

, and Alex S. Diede

1

Abstract

Sexual harassment of graduate students is prevalent, yet little is known about their ex-

periences reporting sexual harassment to their university. We conducted interviews with

32 graduate students who reported sexual harassment to Title IX to understand how

survivors’experiences of harassment align with report outcomes. Nearly all participants

experienced severe, education-limiting consequences of the harassment and reported to

ensure safety and restore educational access. Most reports were deemed unactionable and

f‌indings of responsibility were rare, demonstrating a disconnect between survivors’ex-

periences and Title IX outcomes. Our analysis suggests that Title IX practitioners rely on

notions of “severity”rather than harassment consequences.

Keywords

sexual harassment, sexual assault, title IX, reporting, graduate students

Sexual harassment of graduate students is a prevalent issue within institutions of higher

education (Rosenthal et al., 2016). Graduate students often experience harassment from

1

University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA

2

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Corresponding Author:

Allison Cipriano, Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 238 Burnett Hall, Lincoln, NE

68588-0308, USA.

Email: allison.cipriano@huskers.unl.edu

faculty and staff and other students (Rosenthal et al., 2016). While prevalence of

harassment is high among graduate students of all genders, graduate student women

consistently face the highest rates of sexual harassment from faculty, staff, and students;

overall, 70% of women and 54% of men self-report being harassed while in graduate

school (Rosenthal et al., 2016). Sexual harassment experiences have detrimental effects

on graduate students’personal and academic wellbeing. For example, graduate student

survivors often develop post-traumatic stress symptoms following harassment

(Rosenthal et al., 2016). Graduate student women who experience harassment also

report signif‌icantly diminished perceptions of safety on campus (Rosenthal et al.,

2016).

Title IX is intended to respond to sex-based discrimination (e.g., sexual harassment),

and students who have been harassed can report their experiences to university off‌icials

(e.g., the university’s Title IX off‌ice). After harassment is reported, Title IX practi-

tioners use a “severe and pervasive”standard to determine whether the harassment is

“actionable”and should be formally investigated. This standard is an extension of the

“severe or pervasive”standard derived from Title VII and Title IX case law (e.g., Davis

V. Monroe County Board of Education, 1999). In the current study, we examined

graduate students’experiences of sexual harassment, including the educational out-

comes of the harassment they faced, and how those experiences align with the out-

comes of their reports to the Title IX Off‌ice.

Sexual Harassment and Title IX

Sexual harassment takes many forms, including sexual coercion, unwanted sexual

attention, and gender harassment (Fitzgerald et al., 1988,1995;Fitzgerald & Ormerod,

1991;Leskinen et al., 2011). Sexual coercion refers to academic or employment

conditions that are contingent upon compliance with sexual acts and is often understood

as “quid pro-quo”harassment (Fitzgerald et al., 1988,1995;Fitzgerald & Ormerod,

1991;Leskinen et al., 2011). For example, a professor informing a student they will fail

their class unless they perform a sexual act would be considered sexual coerci on.

Unwanted sexual attention captures a wide range of unwanted and unreciprocated

sexual harassment behaviors, such as unwanted sexual advances, sexual assault, and

rape (Fitzgerald et al., 1988,1995;Fitzgerald & Ormerod, 1991;Leskinen et al., 2011).

For instance, a professor touching a student in a sexual manner would be considered

unwanted sexual attention. Gender harassment refers to the expression of attitudes

about one’s gender (typically women) that are offensive, demeaning, or disdainful

(Fitzgerald et al., 1988,1995;Fitzgerald & Ormerod, 1991;Leskinen et al., 2011). An

example of gender harassment would be expressing the belief that women are less

intelligent or competent than men. While all these behaviors constitute sexual ha-

rassment, they are often not viewed as equivalent in “severity.”Cultural stereotypes

about sexual harassment assume that some types of harassment behaviors (e.g., sexual

coercion and rape) are more “severe”in their effects than others (e.g., gender ha-

rassment; Edwards et al., 2011). Countering notions that certain types of harassment

344 Feminist Criminology 17(3)