The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

Paid Worker Role and Health 481

series of situations that create the opportu-

nity for quid pro quo sexual harassment to

occur. Following each scenario, respondents

are asked how likely they would be to engage

in a number of behaviors. A sample scenario

is shown in Table 12.6. Men who score high

on this scale say they would respond to the

series of scenarios by engaging in sexual

behavior. These men endorse stereotypical

masculine beliefs and have traditional atti-

tudes toward women (Paludi & Barickman,

1998; Pryor, Giedd, & Williams, 1995). These

men equate masculinity with high status, ap-

pearing tough, and being dominant.

Characteristics of Victim

Younger and unmarried women are more

likely to be harassed than older and married

women (Gutek & Done, 2000). Ethnicity is re-

lated to sexual harassment, but it depends on

assimilation into American culture. A study

of women working in a food processing com-

pany showed that 23% of low-acculturated

Hispanic women had been sexually harassed,

in contrast to 61% of high-acculturated His-

panic women and 77% of non-Hispanic White

women (Shupe et al., 2002). The investigators

suggested that the higher rate of sexual harass-

ment among high-acculturated women had to

do with the greater threat they posed to tra-

ditional roles compared to low-acculturated

women. Low-acculturated women retained the

traditional male/female roles that are rooted in

Hispanic culture.

Women’s occupations also are linked to

sexual harassment. Women employed in male-

dominated positions are more likely to be ha-

rassed than women employed in traditional

occupations (Bondurant & White, 1996), in

part because these women have greater contact

with men. Women’s occupations also influ-

ence the type of sexual harassment. Women in

perception of being harassed was not related to

these outcomes. Thus, the objective measure

of harassment hurt performance, whereas the

subjective perception of harassment did not.

Characteristics of the victim also influ-

ence responses to sexual harassment. A study

of college students showed that nontradi-

tional/feminist attitudes buffered the effects

of sexual harassment for White women but

exacerbated the effects of sexual harassment

for Black women (Rederstorff, Buchanan, &

Settles, 2007). Rederstorff and colleagues

argued that feminist attitudes provided

White women with an external attribution

for the harassment—societal problems at

large. Black women, however, face oppres-

sion from both race and gender, and sexual

harassment may make this double victimiza-

tion salient, leading to psychological distress.

Characteristics of Perpetrator

There are few distinctive demographic char-

acteristics of men who sexually harass women.

Sexual harassment is usually not related to a

man’s age, marital status, physical attractive-

ness, or occupation (Paludi & Barickman,

1998). Harassers are more likely to be cowork-

ers than supervisors (Bondurant & White,

1996), in part because people have more

coworkers than supervisors, which means

hostile environment harassment is more com-

mon than quid pro quo harassment.

Although male harassers cannot be

distinguished by demographic characteris-

tics, psychological characteristics are linked

to those who may harass. People who score

higher on hostile and benevolent sexism are

more tolerant of sexual harassment (Russell &

Trigg, 2004). Pryor (1998) developed the

Likelihood to Sexually Harass (LSH) scale

to identify the person most likely to engage

in sexual harassment. This scale consists of a

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