Harvard sexual harassment survey

de Sidney Verba, Joseph DiNunzio, Christina Spaulding, Radcliffe College. Henry A. Murray Research Center

This survey was conducted to determine the extent to which sexual harassment is a widespread problem at Harvard University. Because of the nature of sexual harassment, it was thought that an anonymous survey might better determine the prevalence of harassment at Harvard than the analysis of reported cases. Questionnaires were completed by 322 male and 349 female graduate students, 720 female and 710 male undergraduates, and 431 male (75%) and 72 female (98%) members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The students' names were selected randomly from Registrar's lists. The questionnaires addressed attitudes toward and definitions of sexual harassment, general experiences of sexual harassment, experiences of harassment involving authority figures, experiences involving peers, experiences as the accused in a sexual harassment situation, and potential remedies. Both open-ended and precoded questions were included. The measure is similar to the one used in the F̲ederal Sexual Harassment Survey ̲by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, also archived at the Murray Center. The computer-accessible data and transcribed copies of the written responses to the open-ended questions are available at the Murray Center.