Perception Of Sexual Harassment:the Mediating Of Feminist Identity

Sexual harassment is an extreme form of gender discrimination.It refers to sexually related,unwelcome,offensive and threatening behaviors,ranging from minor violations to serious sexual abuse or assault.So far,many western studies have shown that sexual harassment is widespread,and in the Oriental cultural environment where sexual topics are sensitive,sexual harassment incidents have gradually emerged in recent years.Although any gender can be the victim of sexual harassment,in the patriarchal culture,women are the main object of sexual harassment,while men are the subject of sexual harassment.Numerous studies have found that sexual harassment experiences negatively impact women’s physical and mental health.However,due to the influence of various comprehensive factors,women’s awareness of sexual harassment varies.In the patriarchal environment,many women still have a high threshold for their perception of sexual harassment.Research indicates that women with higher feminist identity believe that there are more incidents of sexual harassment in society,and feminists also report experiencing more incidents of gender discrimination.Then,will women with higher feminist identity have lower detection threshold of sexual harassment? Based on this,the core issue of this study is whether feminist identity can affect the perception of sexual harassment,and what factors can regulate the relationship between the two factors.The purpose of research one is to explore the development status of feminist identity in Chinese culture,and to explore whether the feminist identity of female groups can predict their sexual harassment cognition and tolerance,and whether it plays an intermediary role between gender role attitude,gender role and sexual harassment cognition.The research adopts questionnaire survey method,using the Feminist Identity Composite(FIC)to measure the degree of feminist identity,the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory(ASI)to measure the gender role attitude of the subjects,the Bem Sex Role Inventory(BSRI)to measure the gender role,and the sexual harassment cognitive questionnaire to measure the sexual harassment cognitive degree of the subjects.The results showed that there were differences in the subjects’ feminist identity among different demographic data,and the development of feminist identity could significantly predict their sexual harassment cognition and tolerance,meanwhile,feminist identity played an intermediary role between gender role attitude,gender role and sexual harassment cognition.The purpose of the second study is to explore whether the type of sexual harassment and the gender role of the victim can regulate the relationship between feminist identity and sexual harassment cognition.The study used a three-factor intersubjective design,with the independent variables of feminist identity,victim gender role and sexual harassment type,and the dependent variable of sexual harassment cognition.After reading a script randomly assigned to a sexual harassment situation,the participants answered questions about whether the words or actions in the situation were sexual harassment.The results of this study show that the main effect of feminist identity is significant,and its interaction with the victim’s gender role and sexual harassment type is significant.The results show that under the experimental conditions,feminist identity can still predict sexual harassment cognition,while the victim’s gender role and sexual harassment type play a moderating role.The purpose of the third study is to explore the relationship between feminist identity and sexual harassment cognition,sexual harassment experience and sexual harassment coping style by means of qualitative interview research,focusing on the differences between women with low degree of feminist identity and those with high degree of sexual harassment in the above aspects.After the semi-structured interview,the recordings were converted into scripts and coded using Nvivo.11.The results showed that women with high levels of feminist identification had a more comprehensive definition of sexual harassment,reported more experiences of sexual harassment in a less severe form,and were more likely to respond to sexual harassment by seeking help and resisting.In conclusion,there were four conclusions as following:(1)Feminist identity can significantly predict the perception of sexual harassment of female groups;(2)Gender traditional attitude and gender role influenced the perception of sexual harassment through feminist identity;(3)Feminist identity influenced the interactive effects of the victim’s gender role and sexual harassment type on the perception of sexual harassment;(4)Women with a high degree of feminist identity were more likely to seek help and fight against sexual harassment.