ERIC Number: EJ1367933
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-2637-9112
EISSN: EISSN-2637-9120
Women College Students and the Fight against Sexual Harassment: The First Ten Years, 1971-1981
Perkins, Anne G.
Journal of Women and Gender in Higher Education, v15 n3 p228-243 2022
More than 50 years after the term "sexual harassment" was coined in 1971, the problem persists, with 59% of U.S. women undergraduates reporting that they have been sexually harassed since enrolling in college. Historical narrative offers a deeper understanding of current issues, yet the historiography of higher education has remained almost entirely mute regarding the origins of the fight to end sexual harassment on college campuses. This article addresses this gap by examining a foundational decade in this battle, 1971 to 1981. This is a historical study, and as such, the data consists of primary documents from the period. The article focuses on sexual harassment of women by men professors and administrators. While this study provides national context throughout, I chronicle the advance of protections for women students through the lens of one campus in particular: Yale University. Yale's women activists were at the forefront of the fight against sexual harassment in this decade. It was Yale women who first coined the term "sexual harassment" in 1971, and Yale women who in 1977 filed "Alexander v. Yale," the federal lawsuit that led the court to declare, for the first time, that sexual harassment was a form of sex discrimination. The article concludes with a discussion of implications for practice and future research.
Descriptors: Womens Education, Females, College Students, Sexual Harassment, Educational History, College Faculty, Teacher Behavior, Administrator Behavior, School Safety, Activism, College Administration, Court Litigation, Educational Legislation, Federal Legislation, Sex Fairness, Gender Discrimination
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Connecticut (New Haven); United States
Identifiers - Laws, Policies, & Programs: Title IX Education Amendments 1972
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A