Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Changing Nature Of Employment-Related Sexual Harassment: Evidence From The U.S. Federal Government, 1978 – 1994, Heather Antecol, Deborah Cobb-Clark

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

This paper examines the changing nature of attitudes toward and reports of sexual harassment using data for 1978–94 drawn from the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (USMSPB) of the U.S. federal government. The authors find that although unwanted sexual behavior reported by federal government employees changed only slightly in overall incidence over the period, its pattern changed noticeably. Unwanted sexual attention by supervisors, for example, declined in incidence; crude and offensive behavior by co-workers increased; and the likelihood that harassment would occur only once (rather than repeatedly) increased. Employees’ attitudes toward sexual harassment changed markedly, with a dramatically increased willingness …