Sexual harassment: A preliminary analysis of its effects on Hong Kong Chinese women in the workplace and academia

Abstract

This study was designed to examine the impact of sexual harassment on Hong Kong Chinese women in the workplace and in college. Questionnaires assessing sexual harassment incidents experienced by self, perceived prevalence of sexual harassment in the organization, job or study satisfaction, and organizational commitment were completed by 77 female secretaries and 84 female college students in Hong Kong. Consistent with our hypotheses, personal experience of sexual harassment was found to be negatively associated with respondent satisfaction with their jobs or studies. However, these experiences were found to be unrelated to organizational commitment. In addition, most of the coping strategies adopted by the harassment victims tended to be nonassertive in nature. As one of the few systematic sexual harassment studies on Chinese working women and female students, we interpret our findings from an indigenous perspective and discuss both theoretical as well as applied implications for research in this area.