Counselling in Cases of Sexual Harassment and Sexualised Violence

                                                                                                                                                                                Sexual Harassment is any mental, physical or verbal behaviour with sexualised reference, which is perceived as boundary-pushing, uncomfortable or unwanted, or geared toward achieving this effect. Sexual Harassment is always a one-sided behaviour, which is fundamentally distinct from flirting or compliments and often leads to stress, insecurity, fear, depression and psychosomatic complaints. Sexual Harassment is a form of prohibited discrimination and prohibited by §3 of the General Equal Treatment Act (Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz, AGG). Sexual Harassment is not connected with sexuality as a generally positively connotated event. Offenders use sexual connotated and by themselves sexually charged expressions and acts, to exert power and dominance. Even if the person responsible claims to have no intention of harassment, the above-mentioned behavior can still constitute sexual harassment.

When a boundary is crossed is subjective and depends on the perspective of the affected individual. For a personal assessment, the following questions may serve as a guide:                                                                                             

• Was the behaviour of the offender unwanted?
• Was the behaviour originating one-sidedly from the offender?
• Do I feel uncomfortable or devalued because of the behaviour?
• Was I promised advantages for complying?
• Was I threatened with disadvantages for resisting?         
  
• The behavior continues even though I clearly said that I do not want that                                                                                                    

If you have answered “yes” to one of these questions after an experience or are unsure about it, you can reach out to us:

                                                                                                                                                                                        Out of fear of seeming prudish, sensitive or a killjoy, many affected persons deny or sugarcoat their experience with sexual harassment. You have the right to defend yourself! Do not wait for unacceptable behaviour to stop on its own. Create clear boundaries with strong words. Make clear, that boundary-pushing behaviour is not allowed.
Do not stay alone. Speak with people you trust. This will help you to remove insecurities.
Create a protocol with the incidents (date, time, place, bystanders/witnesses, what has happened?).
You can reach out to the listed counselling and help services alone or with a person you trust. Everything will be treated confidentially. No actions will be taken without your consent. Which actions are to be taken is entirely up to you. Possible punishments against the offender include: exclusion from lectures and classes, expulsion from school, ban from entering school grounds.

Pritchard, E., & Edwards, D. (Eds.). (2023). Sexual Misconduct in Academia: Informing an Ethics of Care in the University (1st ed.). Routledge.                                                                                                                                          

• https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003289944 
• UBT: 50/MS 3200 P961 (ZB)
• This book is about experiences of sexual misconduct in the everyday spaces of academia and what and how we can learn from these experiences to inform an ethics of care in the university. By bringing a wide range of lived experiences of students, staff and researchers out of their current marginalised positions within academic discussions, the book offers a deeper understanding of sexual misconduct in the academy for both students and staff. Each of the chapters offers not only opportunities for conversation and reflection, but addresses and suggests what responses to academic sexual misconduct could and should involve. By presenting collective accounts of experiencing, witnessing, researching and writing about sexual misconduct in academic spaces, Sexual Misconduct in Academia examines how to develop ethical pedagogical practices, if an ethics of care is to be truly implemented or transformed. This book is suitable for students and scholars in Gender Studies, Education and Sociology.

Bourabain, D. (2021), Everyday sexism and racism in the ivory tower: The experiences of early career researchers on the intersection of gender and ethnicity in the academic workplace. Gender Work Organ, 28: 248-267.                                                                                                                                                                                

• https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12549
• The academic workplace is often described as a place of merit and equal opportunities. However, research shows a leaky pipeline where the share of women and people of color decreases in the higher echelons of academia. Explanations are often structural, referring to the access barriers women are confronted with, such as hiring and recruitment. This research investigates what goes wrong in the early phases of a female academic's career. From an intersectional perspective, I study the experiences with everyday sexism and racism of PhD and postdoctoral researchers across disciplines. After conducting 50 in-depth interviews, four processes are discovered: smokescreen of equality, everyday cloning, patronization, and paternalism.

Mukherjee, A., & Dasgupta, S. (2022). “He Says, She Says”: Sexism and Sexual Harassment in Higher Educational Institutions of India. Journal of Economic Issues, 56(2), 408–415.                                                                                    

• https://doi.org/10.1080/00213624.2022.2057169
• Results of a survey among current and former female students of colleges and universities in India show that subtle and explicit sexist practices are perpetuated in campus spaces by both male students and faculty members. Moreover, one in ten respondents reported being sexually assaulted by at least one person from their educational institutions. Further, we present a dynamic three-player game-theoretic model. The results highlight the role of institutions in lowering incidences of sexual harassment, and also incorporate the feminist critic of institutional responses in this context, thereby underlining the crucial role of both institutional action and cultural norms.

Ibrahim, D., & Riley, R. (2023). Female Medical Students’ Experiences of Sexism during Clinical Placements: A Qualitative Study. Healthcare, 11(7), 1002.                                                                                                                        

• https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11071002
• In the UK, more women are studying medicine than men, most of whom have experienced sexism, yet these experiences are under-researched. This qualitative study explores female medical students’ experiences of sexism on placement, impacts sustained, barriers and facilitators encountered upon reporting. A total of 17 semi-structured interviews were conducted, employing purposive sampling, snowball sampling and an inductive thematic analysis. A qualitative methodology was underpinned by the feminist social constructionist theory.                                            Four themes were identified = 1: experiences of sexism, comprising physical and verbal harassment and microaggressions; 2: negative impacts of sexist encounters ranged from psychosocial to repercussions on learning and development; 3: systemic and attitudinal barriers to reporting; 4: recommendations to tackle sexism shaped by the views and experiences of female medical student participants. Female medical students experienced wide-ranging sexism which negatively impacted their wellbeing with negative repercussions for their training and development. The barriers to reporting need to be urgently addressed, and systems, policies and processes need to be over-hauled to sensitively, effectively and equitably manage and provide justice to students who experience and report sexism. Students need to be empowered to respond, report and be offered psychological safety in doing so. Attitudes and practices which are complicit in sustaining sexism need to be challenged and changed.