Surveying Sexism

THE SEXUAL harassment survey released last week showed that more than one-third of women students and faculty at Harvard have been sexually harassed. It's a disturbing statistic, and one several national newspapers have seen fit to report. But the national media may overlook an equally strong, but more subtle finding of the report--that sexism is alive and well at Harvard.

The survey's statistics offer the first hint: male and female perceptions of sexual harassment differ, with men consistently offering a narrower definition and less pressing concern about the issue. Roughly 50 percent of Harvard males surveyed consider harassment an extensive problem compared to 70 to 80 percent of women.

Differing perceptions are not unusual between the sexes, and are not, in and of themselves, a bad thing. However, when one turns to the comments included in the survey report, a more troubling picture emerges. It's not simply that a tenured male faculty member attributes attention to sexual harassment to "feminist hysteria." Nor does it stop at defensive remarks that sexual harassment complaints are "fabricated", or comments decrying "reverse sexual harassment"--overtures from students.

But these comments reflect underlying, commonplace assumptions that have led many women students and faculty to believe they cannot live as equal members of this community. Asked about sexual harassment, many women (as well as a substantial number of men) point repeatedly to the more fundamental problem of sexism on campus. One women junior faculty member writes, "I think [if] Harvard could be less of a male club with all those attitudes and values my own annoyances would disappear." A tenured woman professor remarks on the survey, "Only males sent this out; the university harasses females by having only males in authority to sign the cover letter."

This sense that women are unwelcome pervades academic life. It begins with the sheer numbers and feeds on discriminatory treatment, either passing or studied, by male colleagues, supervisors or professors. The unease can take shape with a sexist joke or offensive innuendo; it takes root with a supervisor's comment--reported in the survey--of "Shut up, you bitch." When women faculty feel reluctant to speak their views in faculty meetings because of such remarks, or female students stop seeking advice from a sexist professor, their academic freedom is curtailed. Furthermore, their reticence then perpetuates stereotypes that women are academically inferior to men.

Forceful deterrents to sexual harassment are one step toward mitigating the negative effects of sexism. Combatting engrained stereotypes is tougher, but the University should not throw up its hands at the problem. Harvard cannot be expected to change what is in the minds of its faculty and staff; it can change the number of those minds that are female and, in so doing, strike a blow at the structural factors that give rise to sexism. Moving swiftly to hire more female professors and administrators is still the best hope to creating a more equal academic climate for men and women.

At the end of the sexual harassment survey, one female undergraduate wrote the following: "As far as the effects on my academic performance, I've assumed all along they've been negligible, but I guess [sexual harassment] has been just another factor in the atmosphere of overwhelming pressure that for me has characterized being a woman at Harvard."

Without such actions, the University can expect more such bitterness from its women scholars.